


Mourning Moon

by JBankai89



Series: Lunaticus [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Character Death, F/M, Flashbacks, Getting Together, M/M, Rape, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-06-22 20:21:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 37,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15589974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JBankai89/pseuds/JBankai89
Summary: Tavish D’alloume has hit puberty and presented as a submissive werewolf. His father, alpha of their pack, is furious that he is submissive male, and leaves him to the whims of the other dominants of the pack before he is abandoned and left for dead.Desperate to escape his pack, Tavish unwittingly crosses into the territory of another, where he meets an infamous alpha who takes an immediate interest in Tavish—an alpha who Tavish knows on sight.But then, there is not a soul alive who does not know who Fenrir Greyback is.





	1. Prologue - Looking Back

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I had intended this to be just a oneshot, but it got a little away from me. This is Tavish and Fenrir’s backstory, which you can read as a standalone if you can’t be bothered to read the other stories in this series, but it will make much more sense if you read everything, as some of the werewolf laws and practices are not fully covered in this story, plus it will offer more context. This is the LAST story I am posting for the Lunaticus series, so I hope you guys all enjoy it :) the prologue is on the short side, but I promise that the first real chapter will be longer. Next update will be August 13th.

Prologue: Looking Back

Tavish did not recall much of the encounter. His time with Fenrir was always so fast, but so  _deeply_ satisfying that that was fine; there would be time enough to remember it later.

 

One moment, he had been sitting with Harry and the other subs, chatting away as they grazed on a late lunch, and the next a large hand fell to his hip as hot breath tickled his ear, and the scent of his alpha—his  _mate—_ enveloped him.

“ _Come to my cabin with me_ ,” Fenrir growled, his voice close to a purr as he dropped his hand down to Tavish's arse and gave it a pinch. “ _I saw you_ _walking normally—I don't like it.”_

He nipped at the shell of Tavish's ear, and the sub grinned while his companions rolled their eyes. Harry pointedly got up and moved over to where Remus had been chatting with Wu-Fei and dragged his mate away, while at the same moment Fenrir tugged Tavish to his feet and led him towards the cabins.

 

The air was forced from Tavish's lungs as they tumbled onto the alpha’s mess of blankets and furs, and his mate's lips fell to the side of his throat as he bit down. Tavish shuddered at the delicious pain and pleasure, knowing full well that there would be a mark there later.

“Mine,” Fenrir growled as he dragged his tongue along the column of Tavish's throat, “all mine...”

“Yours...” Tavish panted, arching himself into his mate, his fingers burying themselves into the silver tangles of his hair while he dragged the alpha into a bruising kiss. “Need...need it...need _you_...”

“Oh, I'll give it to you, pet,” Fenrir purred, “you'll be walking funny for the rest of the _week_...”

“ _Yes_ ,” Tavish moaned, spreading his legs invitingly, just as Fenrir bit at his throat again, leaving another mark. He squeezed Tavish’s arse again, making him keen, before he began to hastily yank Tavish’s jeans off, as well as his own.

A tickle trailed up Tavish’s bare thigh from where Fenrir had laid his hand, and shot into his arse. It was almost like a bolt of lightning—primal werewolf magic, but used to lubricate him—a wizard spell adapted for their own magical brand, not that Fenrir would ever admit to such a thing.

All thoughts of magic, wizards and everything else fled from Tavish’s mind however when Fenrir suddenly drove two fingers into him. Tavish groaned as he pressed back into the digits, urging them in deeper, and causing his mate to chuckle.

“So eager, pet,” Fenrir purred as he licked a stripe across the two love bites upon Tavish’s neck, making him moan with need. “How long has it been since I’ve fucked you?”

“Thirty-six _whole_ hours,” Tavish replied with a groan. “It’s been _too_ long.”

“Then who am I to refuse you?” Fenrir asked teasingly, and Tavish moaned his assent as the alpha’s deliciously thick cock replaced the fingers, and his hands dug into Tavish’s hips, his fingertips pressing so hard into his flesh that they were certain to bruise.

“Oh, _yes_ ,” Tavish keened as Fenrir drew out, then thrust back in sharply, snapping his hips and making Tavish’s entire body jerk forward in the process. “Yes, yes, _please,_ harder...”

Fenrir growled, but dutifully adhered to his mate’s pleas, thrusting into him with such force every time that Tavish became little more than a gibbering mess, begging for Fenrir to go  _harder_ and  _faster_ . With every plea, Fenrir did as he was asked, his deep voice rumbling in Tavish’s ear with a throaty chuckle, clearly amused by how eager Tavish was to be completely ravished by the alpha.

Tavish did not reach for his own cock, but was mildly surprised when Fenrir did—usually he insisted on Tavish finding release on his cock alone, but to feel his mate’s large, rough hand encasing his member was delicious, and he cried out his pleasure as Fenrir growled, and found his release inside Tavish’s arse at almost the same moment.

“That...that was...different,” Tavish panted as he slowly came down from his orgasmic high, rolling over so that he could smile at Fenrir, then cuddled up against his chest. “You don’t pull me off so often.”

“Just reminding myself that it’s not just your arse that I like,” Fenrir replied, his head bowing forward to nuzzle at Tavish’s shoulder lightly, a show of affection Fenrir never would have done had they been in full view of the pack. Tavish brimmed with happiness, and pressed himself closer to his mate.

“I love you too,” Tavish teased, and Fenrir grunted a little as he held his sub close.

“We don’t need to say it,” Fenrir muttered. “You, Adina, you two have been through more than enough with me, we show it in other ways, we don’t need to say it all the damn time.”

“Yeah, but it’d be nice to hear it once in a while,” Tavish hedged, and smiled up weakly at his mate. “I mean, we’re not Remus and Harry, we don’t need to say it seven hundred times a day, but...once in a while might be nice.”

“Are you hinting that you want me to say it, pet?” Fenrir asked, cocking a brow at him, and Tavish offered him a meek, but hopeful smile, which caused his mate to huff with annoyance.

“Fine, fine...I love you,” he grumbled, “that enough?”

“Your delivery could use a little work,” Tavish replied, then laughed when Fenrir glared at him.

“I’m sorry, Alpha,” Tavish said, and moved in to peck his lips lightly. “Thank you for saying it.”

“I _should_ probably say it more often,” Fenrir admitted grudgingly as he leant in to lick one of Tavish’s new mating marks. “Especially to you.”

“Why especially to me?”

“You and I didn’t have the best start, to say the least.”

“You always were the best at understating things,” Tavish replied, smiling faintly as Fenrir seemed to teeter between wanting to respond to his remark, and wanting to ignore it. His eyes seemed to almost glow with a myriad of emotions, in particular guilt and remorse for what had happened... _before._

Tavish didn’t say anything as he snuggled closer to his mate and closed his eyes, feigning sleep. He didn’t want to think about those times, when things had been so bad, and so horrible, but his mind seemed quite keen to cross-examine them, and he shuddered a little as his thoughts strayed back to those days before Fenrir.

 


	2. Abandoned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Next update will be on August 20th.   
> **Trigger Warning: References to violent rape, parental abandonment, rape-induced PTSD, anxiety, and rape-induced injuries.**

Chapter One – Abandoned

 

**Thirty Years Earlier**

 

This was not what was supposed to happen.

Tavish  _hurt—_ he ached in places that he did not think  _could_ hurt. His blunted nails scrabbled at his short hair, and tears pricked his eyes. He shivered, and forced himself to stand, moaning in pain as memories of what had occurred not a full day before flooded into his head.

 

“ _That's impossible, no son of mine is a submissive, my bloodline is strong!”_

 

The cutting words of his father burned in his mind, and tears streaked his cheeks as Tavish staggered forward, but barely made it a handful of steps before he fell with a soft, pained cry. 

 

“ _You, whore, this is not my child!”_

“ _Alpha, please, he is your son!”_

“ _He is not! Our bloodline has carried nothing but dominant males for the last eight generations! What did you do? Tell me!”_

 

“No, no, no, no...” Tavish whimpered and trembled violently as the sound of his mother's screaming filled his head, but in his effort to banish the thought, another memory, more horrifying than the last, bloomed into his mind as he recalled his father's next act of betrayal.

 

“ _Take him. I've no use for a sub that won't bear me heirs.”_

“ _And if he breaks, Alpha?”_

“ _And what do we do when a toy breaks? Throw it away.”_

 

With tear-filled eyes, his body trembling, Tavish forced himself to not think about it. His first time was supposed to have been special, and thanks to his father's interference, all Tavish could recall was blood, pain, and screaming. 

_I have to keep moving,_ Tavish thought in desperation as fresh blood stained the seat of his ragged trousers, and he wrapped his arms tightly around himself in an effort to stave off the bone-deep chill as he tried to keep himself from throwing up.  _I can't stay here. Poachers, Red Moon, Ministry, Death Eaters...I'll die if I stay here, but where can I even go? I can't go home, where Father will just throw me back to his dominants..._

Tavish shook off the horrible thoughts as he staggered to a stop at the foot of a tall, dead tree, and moved to try and scale it, only to find that he was too weak to do so. Still shivering, he circled it, and found it to be hollow at its base, likely by a family of wood elves or a large colony of bowtruckles.

Tavish saw no other option, and so he gathered up what leaf litter he could, and insulated the hollow before wiggling inside, and bit his cheek to stifle his pained cries as he curled up. The awkward movement had re-opened his wounds; not merely within his buttocks, but the lacerations upon his chest and back, and the bruises that seemed to have blossomed everywhere else. However, it was the torn flesh of his rectum burned the most painfully, and he felt as though he might be sick from it.

Tavish hugged himself tightly, while outside it had begun to snow. He prayed that tomorrow he would wake up, and find that it had all been some sort of horrible nightmare.

 

~*~

 

Despite Tavish's prayer, he woke to the strong scent of an unfamiliar dominant surrounding him, and when he opened his eyes, he found a stranger staring at him. His head was in Tavish's hollow, and barely three inches from his face. 

“Hello there.”

Tavish squeaked in fright and scuttled back from the person, but given that he was already forced into such a small space, there was nowhere for him to go, and the dominant did not hesitate to reach forward and drag him from his little den.

“No, no, _please,_ ” Tavish begged as he struggled against him, and tears of pain pricked the corners of his eyes, his old injuries reasserting themselves, despite his vain efforts to ignore them. “Please— _please_ , let me go, no, no, _no..._ ”

“Hey, hey, calm down there,” the man said, ignoring Tavish's bids for freedom as though he carried no more physical strength than a hamster. “Whoa, hey, what's—oh my God, what happened to you?”

The dominant's voice dropped from benign concern to genuine worry as Tavish continued to struggle. To the question, Tavish shot him a glare, and bared his teeth threateningly.

“What—what do you care?” he rasped, “y-you're a dom, and you're not from my pack. Now _let go of me!_ ”

“Who did this to you?” the dominant demanded, and Tavish flinched at the hard tone of voice.

“ _Let me go!_ ” Tavish countered, and tried to ignore the sticky wetness that had begun to pool in the seat of his trousers. No doubt the coppery blood smell was making the dom's nose twitch, but Tavish found it hard to care if the scent was bothering the stranger or not.

“Answer my question, and I'll let you go,” the dom replied firmly, “you wandered into my pack's territory, and you look half-dead. What happened to you, Submissive?”

Tavish winced at the title, and his vision swam as his memories reasserted themselves.

 

_Alpha said we could have his princeling..._

_For a male sub, he sure is pretty. Too bad those pregnancy stories are myth; it'd be fun to pup him..._

_Hold him down; I want to split him open first!_

 

“No, no, no, _no_!” Tavish wailed, and began to struggle again. He heard the dominant mutter something, but in his panicked state he did not catch it. Belatedly, he assumed that it had to be a wizard spell of some kind; he felt pain, and then just as suddenly his vision was enveloped in darkness.

 

~*~

 

When Tavish next woke, the first thing that he was aware of was that he was stretched out on a bed.

It was a  _real_ bed; one with pillows and blankets, and it was comfortably warm, as though it had been heated with warming pans or wizard warming charms of some kind.

The next thing he noticed what was his physical pain was less. Tavish could feel some sort of sticky salve clinging to the undergarments he had been changed into, along with fresh pyjamas overlaying a number of cloth bandages upon his various injuries. As the connotations behind the fact that someone had changed his clothes began to slowly click into place in his mind, Tavish felt slightly sick at the idea of  _anyone_ going near his arse, even if it was to apply a healing salve.

Slowly, reluctantly, Tavish cracked his eyes open. He tensed when he saw a dominant sitting at his bedside, his bearded chin braced against his palm as though he was merely dozing, and not fully asleep.

Unlike the last dominant Tavish had come across however, this one he recognized at once.

But then, there wasn't a soul alive who didn't know who  _Fenrir Greyback_ was.

Tavish supposed that he must have gasped in surprise, because the alpha's eyes snapped open suddenly, and Tavish tensed again. He tried to shift back, but his injuries made it too painful a task, and he forced himself to remain still, despite his mind screaming at him to  _run_ and  _hide_ .

“You're finally awake,” Greyback said, his voice little more than a low rumble, and Tavish swallowed thickly as he nodded, and wove his fingers together in an effort to hide his trembling. “Care to explain to me what the son of Marcus D’alloume was doing hiding in my territory's borders, and looking like he went ten rounds with an angry Hippogriff?”

Tavish frowned, and refocused his attention on the thin blanket that had been draped over him. The last thing he wanted to do was discuss what had happened, even less with another dominant. Greyback did not seem to like the silence, and he let out a soft growl of annoyance, which made Tavish whimper softly before he had the good sense to silence himself.

“Well then, let me fill in the blanks, since you're being a little princeling about it,” Greyback huffed, and Tavish winced at his word choice. The dominant ignored him as he began to speak.

“When my beta found you, you were badly beaten, and your arse showed all the hallmarks of a fairly brutal rape. I know your father, boy, and I can smell the submissive blood in you. All eight of your older brothers were dominants, and he has never been interested in male subs. It was fairly obvious to me that he threw you to his dominants, and after enduring them, you ran. Now, tell me...am I wrong?”

The alpha's words brought out of Tavish a swell of emotion, and before he could stop it, he was crying again. Tavish buried his face in his hands, and longed for someone to console him, but given that Greyback was the only one present, he felt his mind balk at the idea. He doubted if he’d ever want to be touched by a dominant  _ever_ again.

“Are—are you going to send me back to my pack?” Tavish asked as he sniffed and wiped his eyes while he gazed up pleadingly at the alpha male, whose hardened expression, much to Tavish’s surprise, softened slightly, though had he not been looking for it, Tavish doubted that he would have even noticed.

“I'm not in the business of handing people back to their abusers,” Greyback grunted, “your father disowned you; I doubt he will come to me, demanding your return. You can stay until your wounds heal, or longer if you choose.”

He pointedly looked away from Tavish as he spoke, his blond hair showing signs of grey at its roots, but his azure eyes were still bright and youthful, and seemed to be carrying something in their depths—some sort of hope, as though he  _wanted_ Tavish to stay.

But that was just ridiculous, Tavish theorized, while he shook his head minutely. What would an alpha like  _Greyback_ even want with someone as broken as him?

Quite abruptly, Tavish recalled his attackers’  _pretty_ comments, and he felt the bile begin to rise in his throat. He clenched his eyes shut, and willed the memories away before he returned his gaze to Greyback and said softly, “I will think about it. Thank you...Alpha.”

Greyback grunted, then stood and strode out of the cabin without so much as a goodbye. His presence was immediately replaced by a man with short black hair, tan skin, and a kind smile. By scent, Tavish could tell that he was a sub, and he found himself somewhat alarmed by the warm smile that the man bore. He'd never meet a  _happy_ male sub before.

“Good to have you back with us...Tavish, was it?” he asked, and Tavish nodded. “I'm Daanish, I'm the healer here. Now, the full moon is in two days, so I've had you inoculated with a Lunis Draught. That'll stop you transforming just this once—the attack put a lot of stress on your body, and paired with a transformation...it may do more harm than good, you understand.”

“Lunis Draught?” Tavish asked, and arched a brow, “what's that? I've never heard of it.”

“We developed it here,” Daanish explained, “ _very_ secret—we don't want the wizard Ministry hearing about it. It's a potion that temporarily blocks a transformation. It's only to be used in emergencies, such as during the late term of a risky pregnancy or when someone has been grievously injured—like you. The wizard Ministry would likely use it to completely stop werewolves transforming, and you and I both know how bad of an idea that would be—they already excessively overuse the wolfsbane potion, so I shudder to think what would happen if they got wind of this one...”

The healer trailed off, and Tavish offered him a noncommittal grunt. The idea of  _not_ transforming on the moon was a strange thing to wrap his head around. He was a born werewolf, after all, and to look at a risen full moon with his human eyes struck him as a very odd concept.

“Well, I'll let you get some rest,” Daanish said with another cheery smile, “I'll be by later to have a look at your injuries. Until then, just try and relax. You're safe here; Alpha is good about keeping us subs away from dominants who don’t know how to take _no_ for an answer.”

Daanish walked away, and Tavish slumped into the pillows on the bed.

_Safe,_ he thought.

What a strange concept.

 

~*~

 

As promised, the potion did not allow Tavish to turn on the moon, but he still felt a strange pull to it as it rose nonetheless, which made it a little difficult to stay indoors and not venture out to join the pack, despite his injuries. 

The howling of the pack was a familiar sound, but it lacked the near-constant snarls of fighting that he'd grown so accustomed to hearing and witnessing in his life—of all the dominants fighting for mating rights while the few subs that had bravely (or perhaps foolishly) stayed with the pack, looked on fearfully.

This pack was different.

He heard no dangerous snarling or growling—there was a harmony here that Tavish had never heard before, and it was a little surprising to him— _more_ than a little.

Tavish tugged the blanket up to his chin as he listened to the pack. He could hear high yips and barks of werewolf pups playing, the occasional snarl of a dominant—though this was not the dangerous, bloodthirsty snarl that he'd come to know from his own pack; this was one of warning, telling whomever the offender was that they were close to stepping out of line.

A soft scrabbling at the door of the cabin suddenly drew Tavish's attention, and he tensed. The scratching stopped, then started again, this time paired with something of a frustrated whine.

Tavish heard a distinctive  _flump_ against the door, and the wood groaned in protest, but did not give. 

This continued for the remainder of the night, and Tavish got very little sleep with the continual thumping against the door. By scent, he could tell it was the alpha—Greyback—but he wasn't completely certain why he was so intent on getting into the cabin. It was possible that his wolf was distressed by the unfamiliar scent in his territory, but Tavish could not recall ever seeing a dominant so intent on investigation before.

Not that many lone wolves were stupid enough to seek out his old pack to begin with, but that was another story.

 

Eventually, the low thumping against the door lulled Tavish to sleep, and when he next woke, it was late morning.

“Welcome back,” a voice said, and Tavish turned to see the smiling face of Daanish approaching him with a breakfast tray in his hands. He was pale and appeared a little tired, but he was otherwise the same Daanish he'd become acquainted with the day before.

It looked and smelled as though he hadn’t even been mated the night before, which struck Tavish as odd. Such a thing was impossible, wasn’t it? Weren’t male subs  _only_ good for one thing? Wasn’t that what his father had always said? And Greyback—why had he been so keen to get into the cabin? Tavish was only a sub, after all; he was hardly anything resembling a threat.

Tavish didn’t know what to think as he accepted the breakfast tray with a small, stiff nod of thanks, and began to prod at his porridge, but didn't eat it. His mind was still stuck on the previous night's occurrences, but he had no idea how to voice his questions without it sounding too suspicious. What if they didn't like his curiosity, and forced him to leave? He was a social creature, after all—he  _needed_ a pack, and after losing the one he’d grown up with, he didn’t want to risk losing this one, too.

“Something on your mind, Tavish?”

Tavish glanced back up, and saw Daanish sitting next to him with the same kind smile upon his face. He did not appear at all mistrustful of Tavish, but open and friendly, which, once again, Tavish found incredibly odd to see.

“Just thinking,” he replied with a vague shrug. “Erm...is...is Grey— _Alpha_ always like that? That territorial, I mean?”

“That wizard... _Voldemort_ , he's been trying to get Alpha for his side in his war for the last few months,” Daanish explained with a dark look in his eyes. “We've been having a problem with spies—wizards—slipping past our borders. The paranoia escapes us in our wolf forms, and you were an unfamiliar scent. Should you choose to stay with us, you'll present yourself to us at the next moon, and Alpha will accept you as pack.”

“I intend to,” Tavish replied with a short nod, “stay, I mean. I've got nowhere else to go; I can't go back to my pack, my father disowned me, and...”

Tavish broke off abruptly with a shudder, and he clenched his eyes shut.

“It's good here, Tavish, I think you'll be happy—safe.”

“Define _safe_ ,” Tavish replied, a little more sharply than he had intended, and Daanish frowned at him.

“It's prohibited to harass the subs here,” Daanish explained, “Alpha won't allow it. When I say safe, I _mean_ safe.”

Tavish's mind went completely blank with shock as Daanish's words echoed within his mind.

_It's prohibited to harass the subs here._

Had Tavish really heard that correctly?

“What did you say?” Tavish asked softly, and Daanish smiled at him.

“Dominants are not allowed to pester the subs—the male _or_ female subs,” Daanish repeated. “If a sub is not interested, that's the end of it. If they push, Alpha or Ulrich reminds them of the rules.”

“Why, though?” Tavish asked after a pregnant pause, while he dropped his gaze to his barely-touched breakfast. “What does he get out of it?”

“Alpha has this belief that all pack members should be treated with the respect that they deserve, not like toys for the stronger of the pack to take advantage of, or play with,” Daanish explained. “There's a few dominants who disagree with him, but Alpha won't budge and change things back no matter how much Bryce and the others threaten him.”

“Sounds like...a lot of work,” Tavish replied, and Daanish chuckled.

“It is, that. Now come on, eat, then you can go; you’re well enough to get out of bed, but I want you to take it easy and not push yourself too hard, all right? I've called Adina; she's the Alpha Bitch. She'll show you to the Sub House and help you get settled.”

“Sub House?” Tavish asked, and Daanish nodded.

“Special house for unmated subs,” he explained. “No dominant is allowed inside, not even Alpha.”

“But _why_?” Tavish asked, his tone almost desperate, but in response, Daanish offered him a pitying smile, like one might offer an orphaned pup. He didn’t understand the expression, and it made his stomach knot unpleasantly.

“Finish your breakfast,” Daanish said instead of answering his question. “Adina will be here soon to fetch you.”

 

Less than an hour later, a pretty older woman with ash blonde hair came to the cabin, her eyes a sparkling blue, and despite the similarities in appearance, she was such a stark contrast from Greyback himself that Tavish found himself momentarily struck dumb. She exuded an aura of warmth and kindness, aided in part by the round belly protruding from her abdomen, indicative of a late-term pregnancy, and she looked the exact  _opposite_ of what Tavish would have expected from the chosen mate of one Fenrir Greyback.

At the same time, Tavish found himself relaxing at the sight of her. Greyback was mated, clearly with pups on the way, and she shared no physical similarities with Tavish whatsoever, confirming that not only was Greyback interested in women, but happily mated, and would have no reason to approach him like  _that_ .

“Hello, Tavish,” she said kindly, her tone of voice high and girlish, but still carried a note of authority that spoke of her ranking in the pack. Despite outward appearances, she gave Tavish the impression that she was not a woman to try and cross. “How are you feeling?”

“I've been better,” he replied honestly, making her laugh, then he jumped straight to what he wanted to know—what he _needed_ to know. “Erm, is it true, what the healer told me? That...that subs are safe here?” Despite the fact that he'd been told so now multiple times, he still found it more than a little hard to believe.

“Come see for yourself,” Adina said, and held out a hand to him.

Bottom lip caught between his teeth, Tavish took the alpha bitch’s hand, and allowed her to lead him out of the cabin that had been his sanctuary for the last few days, and into the bright sunlight of his new home.

 


	3. Mirage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Next update is scheduled for August 27th. Enjoy!   
> **Trigger Warning: PTSD as a product of rape.**

Chapter Two – Mirage

 

As Tavish stepped from the healer’s cabin and into the light of day, it was as though he had stepped into a scene out of a fantasy.

Clusters of subs were overseeing the pack's pups, who were running and playing. A group of dominants were returning from a hunt, some with stags draped over their bare shoulders, others bearing long hooks with a number of smaller animal carcasses hanging from it—rabbits and fish, mostly—while other dominants still were circling the territory, some in wolf form, some in their human skin, keeping an eye on things and watching out for trouble. No one appeared frightened or upset, and everyone seemed to be happy and content.

“This is...I mean...” Tavish trailed off as he struggled to find the right words. “It's...like a paradise.”

“Glad you think so,” a sudden gruff voice said, and Tavish spun around to see Greyback sauntering towards them. Tavish watched as Adina's entire demeanour shifted immediately from _Alpha Bitch_ to _Mate._ Her expression softened, her smile changed ever so slightly as Greyback made his approach, and he stopped in front of her, pressing his palm to her swollen belly in silent greeting before he turned his gaze to Tavish. His cheeks flushed and he dropped his eyes, feeling as though he'd somehow walked in on a very private scene.

“It's good to see you up and about,” Greyback continued, his tone approving. “Once you're completely healed I'll assign you somewhere, but until then I want you to take it easy, understood?”

“Yes, Alpha,” he replied, and watched as he murmured something to his mate, which elicited a small smile and a nod from Adina. He shifted as though to leave them be, but she caught the alpha’s wrist at the last moment, and tugged him back to her for a real kiss.

The few titters of other pack members who passed them by as they did this was indicative to Tavish of how rare it was. He bit his lip to stifle a smile at the way Greyback's cheeks suddenly adopted twin spots of colour, and he muttered something else before he stepped away, and a very pretty sub took his place, smiling wryly at Adina as she approached.

The sub was tall and willowy, with sharp, pointed features, small red lips, and her hair fell down her back in a long curtain of wavy, inky black locks. Her eyes were wide and a very pale, crystalline blue; at first glance, Tavish had almost thought that they were white.

“You always know how to push Alpha's buttons,” she said approvingly, in a soft, airy tone of voice.

“I'm also the only one who can _get away_ with pushing Alpha's buttons,” Adina shot back with a small, amused smirk, and rested a hand upon her visibly pregnant stomach as she spoke. “Besides, he wouldn't try anything with me in such a... _delicate_ state.”

“You, delicate, _sure_ ,” she replied with a short laugh, “you're as tough as most of the dominants, and you know it.”

“And so do they,” she quipped, and smirked a little, then almost as an afterthought, she turned, and motioned to Tavish, “this is Tavish, by the way, he's new round here.”

“Hello, Tavish,” the woman said with a small, kind smile. “I'm Corrine. I'm the pack beta's mate, it's nice to meet you.”

Tavish reached out for her hand offered it a small squeeze in greeting, and her firm handshake nearly crushed his knuckles. Her eyes shone with amusement, but she did not tease him as she pulled her hand back and glanced around the territory.

“Speaking of the beta,” Adina said conversationally, “where _is_ your mate? It's strange to see you two apart.”

“Taking up one of the hunts. Bryce is still laid up with his 'broken leg',” she said, using air quotes. “The big faker. It's his own fault that Ulrich beat him down, and now he's just whining about it. If he doesn't shut up about how mistreated he is here soon, I might go to a muggle chemist and get him some paracetamol just to shut him up.”

“Poor little princess,” Adina lamented, a hand over her heart. “It really is his own fault, though. He doesn't want to listen to Fenrir's new laws, so he has to pay the price. Maybe it'll get drilled into his skull _sometime_ this century—though I doubt it.”

A commotion at the far end of the huge, expansive territory drew the attention of Tavish and the two women, and Tavish saw what he assumed was another hunting party making their return. Six or seven male dominants were loping from the darkness of the trees, all of them dressed in tatty, faded jeans or thin cotton trousers, but no shirts, they were all carrying heavy carcasses over their shoulders—deer and boar mostly—though the largest man, tall and broad with dark brown hair and an easy, friendly smile, was also sporting some sort of rope from which three pheasants and a goose had been hung.

Even if Tavish had not seen the way Corrine seemed to brighten up at the sight of him, there was no mistaking that this was the pack beta. By size alone he was  _much_ bigger than all the other dominants combined, and only the Alpha was visibly larger than him.

Without so much as a goodbye, Corrine darted across the territory and jumped into the beta's arms as they shared a very passionate kiss in full view of the entire pack.

“They're not shy,” Tavish observed, and Adina laughed.

“No, they're not,” she agreed as she held out an arm and started to lead Tavish away, “I cannot _tell_ you the amount of times I had to chase him out of the Sub House when they were still courting. Those two are _made_ for each other.”

“Must be nice,” Tavish mumbled as he finally drew his gaze away from the couple, and thought back to his original pack. _Love? Commitment?_ He'd always been raised to believe that werewolves were above such weak, petty human emotions, but here...

Tavish looked around again.

_Love was everywhere._

Pups running and playing, mated pairs walked hand-in-hand together, unmated subs kept an eye on the groups of children...

It was completely and utterly baffling.

_This_ was the fearsome pack of Fenrir Greyback?

Tavish had no idea what to think.

“Tavish, dear?” Adina prompted gently, “are you all right?”

“This is just...” he trailed off and bit his lip, uncertain what to say, or how to say it. “It's different from what I expected.”

“You are the son of the D’alloume clan, are you not?” she asked, and immediately he nodded. “Hmm, well, from what I understand, they always approached things from a very harsh point of view of nature—kill or be killed. Fenrir gives us peace and safety here, and the luxury of _choice—_ especially for subs.”

“Choice?” Tavish asked, blinking bemusedly at the word. Adina nodded.

“Yes, the _choice_ whether to let a dominant court us, or not.”

“I've been hearing that, but I'm still finding it a bit hard to believe,” Tavish replied, to which Adina smiled warmly, and slid her hand into his.

“Come on, Tavish, let me show you around.”

Tavish offered her a small, weak smile, and allowed her to lead him away.

 

Tavish spent the day with Adina, she leading him around the territory while she chattered happily. It was a huge space, and he was shown the river, the kitchens, the supply cave and cold storage. Occasionally, they were joined by one of the other subs, or one of Adina and Alpha’s older children, who varied in age from two to nine, but they never stayed long—in particular the latter, as they all appeared too shy to speak two words to the newcomer. Tavish didn’t mind, his entire focus had been more or less on memorizing the layout of the territory. He didn’t want to get lost and end up cornered by one of the dominants.

At last, the tour ended with the most miraculous part (to Tavish, at least) of the entire territory.

The Sub House.

A house for unmated subs, where dominants were forbidden to go.

Adina used Tavish's wonder at the house as an excuse to have a sit-down and rest, her hands resting on her baby bump as she did so. One of her children, a little two-year-old named Rhys, followed them in, and climbed into his mother’s lap while Tavish wove his way through the house. He inspected the sitting room and its bookcase of old, warped paperbacks (which Tavish didn't bother with, given that he'd never learnt to read), the kitchen tucked away at the back of the house, and finally, the communal dormitory.

Two young women were seated upon one of the twin beds nearest to the entrance, a deck of playing cards between them, and Tavish  _thought_ that they were ordinary playing cards—until they exploded, that is.

“Ha!” one of them cried, “I win again!”

“No fair, Sadie!” cried the other, “you _always_ win.”

“Luck of the draw, sweetie,” she said teasingly, and held out her hand. “Come on now, a deal's a deal.”

Grumbling, the other woman dug into her pocket and withdrew some sort of sweets in a violently purple package, and shoved them into her hands before she stomped off.

“No one likes a sore loser, Leticia!” she called, but the one called Leticia ignored her as she bypassed Tavish without saying a word to him, still grumbling under her breath.

“Did I wander in at a bad time?” Tavish asked curiously as she shuffled the deck of cards and tucked them back into their box.

“Nah,” she replied as she shook her head and ripped into the bag she'd won, “Leticia's just upset that I got the last of her Chocolate Frogs. Her mum sends them sneakily, and it _really_ annoys Alpha.” She giggled, and held out an individually wrapped sweet to Tavish. “Want one?”

“Er, all right,” he said as he accepted the chocolate and sat on the edge of her bed. She grinned a little as he unwrapped the chocolate slowly. “So, you, er...you make a habit of upsetting your—of upsetting Alpha?” _did these subs have a death wish?_

“You're from another pack, right?” Sadie asked, “you're not a newly turned wolf?” Tavish nodded silently. “Well, Alpha is generally not as scary as he seems. He doesn't like wizarding stuff, but he understands that some of us still have ties to that world. It annoys him when we stay in touch with our human families—those that will still have us, anyway—and what have you, but he won't punish us over it. This isn't a dictatorship—it's a pack.”

“My fa—er, my old pack never saw the difference. Alpha liked to do lots of...” Tavish shook his head, dispelling the image of his traitorous father. “Never mind. Gone now.”

Tavish couldn't quite articulate why he didn't want his fellow sub to know who his father was. Realistically, it made no difference; it wouldn't adversely affect the pack—his  _new_ pack—one way or the other. However, he had a sinking feeling she might regard him differently as son of an alpha, and as a result, chose to keep quiet.

“This is a good place,” Sadie said earnestly, smiling to herself as she unwrapped another chocolate and bit into it. “Oh, hey, are you gonna keep the card?”

“What card?”

“The card that came with your chocolate frog, silly,” she said with a giggle as she pointed to the discarded wrapper, and picked it up.

Sure enough, nestled inside was a little card with a picture of a wizard on it, an old man with a long silver beard and hair, half-moon spectacles, and piercing blue eyes. The way the man in the photograph seemed to study him closely reminded him very much of Greyback, but he had a feeling that his new alpha would not appreciate the comparison.

“Who'd you get?” Sadie asked curiously, and Tavish felt his face grow warm. Would someone raised by wizards think him stupid because he'd never learnt to read?

“ _I can't read,_ ” Tavish mumbled in response.

“What was that?”

“I said, I can't read,” Tavish said again, and he felt his face get even warmer. Much to his surprise, her expression shifted to apologetic, instead of dumb shock.

“Oh, right, you're a born wolf!” she replied, “sorry, I forgot. You guys don't usually learn that stuff, do you?” Tavish shook his head, and immediately, she held out her hand. “I'll tell you who you got, and can read the back for you if you like.”

“Oh, okay,” Tavish said, so relieved that she wasn't teasing him that he readily handed over the card to her.

“Ooh, you got Dumbledore!” she grinned at him, but Tavish answered with a vague shrug. He still had no idea who this old wizard was. “Okay, here—”

 

_Albus Dumbledore, currently Headmaster of Hogwarts._

_Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern_

_times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his_

_defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945,_

_for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's_

_blood and his work on alchemy with his partner,_

_Nicholas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys_

_chamber music and tenpin bowling._

 

“What's tenpin bowling?” Tavish asked as he cocked his head to the side, and Sadie giggled a little.

“It's a muggle game, I played it once _ages_ ago. You go to this place called a bowling alley, you rent special shoes, and there's all these lanes with these pins set up in triangles, and you roll a ball at it and try to knock down as many as you can.” Sadie paused in her explanation, and winced as she offered him an apologetic look. “That's not a very good explanation, but it's fun. Usually there's drinking and fattening food involved, too.”

“Muggles really are a strange bunch,” Tavish remarked, “I heard about this thing once where apparently they write children's nursery rhymes about pestilent diseases.”

“Just the one, I think,” Sadie replied with a laugh, “but then wizards have their own quirks, as do we. We shouldn't judge them _too_ harshly.”

Tavish spent most of the afternoon in Sadie's company. In that time, she taught him a few card games, both of the wizarding and muggle variety, and offered to help him learn to read, which he agreed to, but she appeared willing to wait until after he felt more settled in this new place. It felt a bit soon to be adding to his stress levels, especially when he was still so jumpy around the pack's dominants.

By dinner, Tavish felt as though he was calm enough to face the rest of the pack outside the sanctuary of the Sub House, but the moment the scents of the dominants hit his nose, he felt his anxiety return, and he stiffened.

“Come on,” Sadie encouraged as she slipped a hand into his, and gave it a gentle tug. “They won't hurt you, I promise. We're going to be sitting with the other subs anyway, so even if one _was_ interested in you, they wouldn't accost you in a cluster of other subs.”

Tavish nodded stiffly, and took a small, awkward step forward.

The pair had almost made it out of the little village of cabins when the looming figure of a dominant stepped in front of them, and Tavish froze, only to relax a moment later when he recognized that it was Greyback. Of all the dominants in the pack, he and the beta were the only two he trusted enough to  _not_ hurt him, though their sheer size and distinctive dominant scent still made him nervous.

“I had assumed that you wouldn't be wholly comfortable surrounded by my dominants yet, even if they wouldn't hurt you,” Greyback explained in a somewhat awkward tone of voice, as though he wasn't used to speaking so gently to his pack members. “Here.”

Greyback pressed a bowl of food into his hands, and Tavish stared at it, wide-eyed, hardly able to believe what he was seeing. To give someone food like this was not a benign act, not like it would be in other types of societies. Amongst werewolves, it was as significant as handing their intended a red rose.

Tavish gaped, but accepted the gift, a torrent of confusing thoughts and emotions warring in his mind.

 

_Am I his intended paramour?_

_I've only been here for a few days. Will I get..._ hurt _again if I say no?_

_Why would he choose someone as damaged as me?_

 

Tavish began to shake, and his fingers tightened around the bowl momentarily before his physical strength seemed to suddenly drain away, and the bowl toppled from his hands.

The comforting scent of a submissive surrounded him, and he heard speaking—a female voice, high and sweet like a bird, and a male voice—low and gruff. In his blind panic, he couldn't make out the words, but he could feel himself being steered from the distressing situation, and slowly the dominant scent faded away.

 

When Tavish finally came back to himself, the first thing he was aware of was that his face was wet, and that the scent that surrounded him was strictly that of the subs of the pack.

With a tiny sob, Tavish buried his face in his hands, and with a soft coo, he felt himself being embraced. He clung to her, the soft bosom of the woman’s chest squishing his cheek as he wept openly.

“Oh, honey, it's all right,” a voice he recognized as Adina's murmured gently, “just let it out, you're fine, you’re safe, just let it out, that's it...” she rubbed his back as she spoke, but her words made him only cry harder. Things were _not_ all right.

“Don't—don't lie to me to make me feel better,” Tavish choked out, “ _nothing_ is all right. Goddess above, my stupid brain fucked _everything_ up.”

“Tavish, you didn't mess anything up—”

“—I did, I did!” Tavish cried, “don't lie. A-Alpha approached me a-and the dominant scent r-reminded me of _them_ and t-then he _offered me food_ and Alphas just don't _do_ that and I knew he'd w-want me to do _things_ and...a-and I _can't_ do those things, not after w-what happened with th-them, and now A-Alpha will th-throw me out of the pack for rejecting him, but I didn't mean to, I _swear—_ ”

“—Tavish, Tavish, please, _calm down_ ,” Adina said, “Alpha is not going to send you away, and he is _not_ insulted by your reaction. He did not realize that offering you food in a show of interest would spark a memory, and he _certainly_ will not kick you out of the pack for it.”

“What?” Tavish croaked, and finally looked up at her properly. The Alpha Bitch was smiling down him warmly, and continued to hold him in a gentle, loving embrace as she moved to stroke his hair.

“Fenrir is not the man everyone thinks that he is,” she said gently, “he cares for his pack more than anything else in this life. He was interested in you before you were even conscious, but he could see the hallmarks of what had happened to you as plain as day. He knew that he would have to be patient in courting you; he was more concerned that anything too overt would scare you away. He has no intentions of forcing you out of the pack.”

“But he wants...” Tavish paused and shivered; Adina's hold on him tightened.

“He would never force himself on anyone, and if you are truly not interested, he will back off and leave you alone,” Adina said firmly. “He's never forced himself on a sub, and he'll not start with you.”

Tavish sniffed sharply, and tightened his hold on the Alpha Bitch. He did not speak, but she seemed to understand the sentiment all the same. She continued to stroke his hair, rocking him like a child.

 


	4. Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Next update is scheduled for September 3rd. Enjoy!  
>  **Trigger Warning: PTSD and Anxiety Attacks, vague rape flashbacks**

Chapter Three – Moon

Tavish had intended to hide away for a day or two in the Sub House as he worked up the courage to face Greyback, but very quickly a few days turned into a week, and one week turned into two. Before he knew it, he was encroaching on his first full moon with the pack, and he found himself nothing short of terrified at the prospect of spending a moon in the midst of several powerful dominants.

 

“Sweetheart,” Adina said gently as she stroked Tavish's hair while he lay on his bed, tears leaking from his eyes as he tried to force away his near-blinding fear at the impending moon. “I know you are scared about the full moon, but Fenrir and the other dominants all understand that you're skittish because of your attack. You will have all the subs with you, and Fenrir himself has threatened all the dominants with bodily harm if they dare go near you that night. No one will touch you.”

“If it's all so safe, then why do I feel this way?” Tavish croaked as he rubbed roughly at his eyes. “Why can't I just...just...make it go, _poof_ , and have everything be okay again?”

“Because...” Adina paused, and she stopped stroking his hair in favour of taking his hand, and she gave it a small squeeze. “Because you need to work through the pain, let yourself feel it all and process everything before your mind will feel ready to move on. No one expects anything from you—”

“—Alpha does,” Tavish interjected miserably, “he _wants_ me, he wouldn't've given me that food otherwise. As soon as I seem better, he'll probably—” he cut himself off as he shivered.

“And I've told you again and again that Fenrir would never push like that. He is a gruff man, a little emotionally stunted, maybe, but he is not _heartless_. He understands that you went through something awful, and are not ready for anything. When you are feeling more like yourself, it is possible that he will approach you again, but if you reject him, he will not harass you for it.”

“I don't feel like I'd _ever_ be ready to be with anyone ever again,” Tavish mumbled sadly as he drew his pillow to his chest and sniffled softly. “I _hate_ feeling like this, like...like...like I'm so weak.”

“Oh, sweetheart, you're not weak, you are _far_ from weak,” Adina replied, her tone taking on a croaky quality as she spoke. “You are stronger than you know.”

 

~*~

 

Tavish rested, and thought on Adina's words. 

He did not feel very strong, despite the alpha bitch’s gentle reassurances, as well as her promise that Greyback would not try anything with him seemed well beyond ridiculous to him. He was the _alpha_ , after all. He had to get what he wanted at the snap of his fingers, so why would he even waste his time being _patient_ with a broken sub?

Tavish closed his eyes, and more tears trickled down his cheeks. Upon his eyelids, instead of the blessed dark he'd hoped for, he saw images from his attack, of his old pack's dominants encroaching on him with wicked, lustful grins, but this time they all bore the face of Fenrir Greyback.

His eyes flew open with a sharp gasp, and Tavish drew his pillow to his chest. He buried his face in the soft down, and cried.

 

~*~

 

Tavish had hoped that once the moon came he'd feel brave enough to face the dominants—Greyback in particular—but when the day of the moon did at last arrive, he still felt almost blinded by terror at the prospect of intermingling with them. 

The worst part was, he knew that he couldn't hide away this time. He needed to be out in the open or he'd destroy the Sub House in his wolf state, and most importantly, Tavish needed to present himself to the alpha for him to formally accept him into the pack.

He shivered at the thought of it; Tavish could not recall ever feeling so terrified of an impending moon before.

_Is this how turned wolves feel at their first moon?_ Tavish wondered idly as he lay upon his bed and stared blankly at the ceiling.  _I’ve never felt this scared of anything before, and certainly not of a full moon._

A sudden hand found Tavish’s, making him jump a little, his gaze dropping to the foreign appendage that covered his own. Adina offered him a warm, apologetic smile, and he immediately cuddled into her side.

“Don't you worry about tonight,” she murmured softly as she wrapped her arms around him and held him close. “Any dominant who so much as looks at you funny will regret it. We'll protect you, I promise.”

Tavish didn't respond, but he rested his head against Adina's shoulder. She reminded Tavish of what a mother  _should_ be—warm, kind, caring—and the residual scent of the alpha clinging to her skin, both from her presumed recent encounters with him and the life growing within her were strangely comforting instead of distressing.

“Thank you,” Tavish finally whispered, and Adina squeezed him gently.

 

~*~

 

When the sky began to glow a gentle, muted orange, Tavish reluctantly slipped out of the Sub House with Adina at his side. She kept an arm around him at all times, holding his hand and rubbing his back alternately as they wove through the cabins and made their way to the main area of the pack's territory. Tavish could feel himself shaking as the scent of the various dominants brushed his nose, but he did his best to keep walking forward, and not bolt back to the House. 

“It's all right,” Adina murmured reassuringly, “no one will hurt you. I'll make sure of it.”

Tavish found it difficult to believe this, his trembling becoming more and more pronounced as they moved closer to the main area of the pack territory. Already the rest of the pack had congregated there, and the heavy aroma of so many dominants in one place nearly made Tavish physically sick. He staggered to a stop, and dug his heels into the soft earth beneath his feet.

“I can't do this,” Tavish said in a panicked rush, “I—I _can't_.”

“You _can_ , sweetheart,” Adina encouraged, rubbing his back soothingly as she urged Tavish slowly forwards and into the main area of the territory, but pointedly _away_ from the dominants.

This small action did indeed help with Tavish's fear, although not by much. Adina led him into a large group of subs, and he was more or less pushed to the centre of the small crowd, essentially masking the dominant scent with their own. Miraculously, Tavish felt some of his fear fade away.

“I'll be right back, sweetheart,” Adina said, and offered Tavish a gentle hug. “I need to collect everyone's clothes. Don't move, all right?”

“Don't worry, Adina,” chirped Corrine happily, “we'll keep all the doms away, no one will touch him.”

She struck a comical fighting stance, and everyone laughed—even Tavish, though his smile was almost painfully forced as Adina smiled and slipped away, and Sadie took the Alpha Bitch’s place, her hand slipping into Tavish’s, and she offered the limb a small squeeze.

“It’ll be okay, just you wait and see,” Sadie said gently, then nudged Tavish’s cheek with her nose in a very wolfish expression of affection. “We’ll stick with you for the presentation to Alpha, and before, and after. You won’t be alone; we’re all here to protect you. Okay?”

“I wish I knew why you lot even _bother_ ,” Tavish said in a moment of attempted self-deprecating humour, but it came out rather flat, while his forced laugh was so feeble that he quickly stopped.

“We protect our own, love,” Sadie said as she moved in to offer him a hug, and Tavish fell into it gratefully. “And even if we were one of those packs that didn’t believe in that sort of thing, I mean...have you _met_ you?”

“What?” Tavish asked, his laugh escaping him more genuinely this time, and she offered him a sweet smile.

“There’s something about you, we all feel it,” Corrine added as she sat closer to Tavish’s opposite side, though her gaze was focused across the territory, and fixed upon Ulrich, the beta. “You just have this air about you, something that we all wish to protect. So even if you were in a perfectly healthy mindset, we’d _still_ all be mother hens about you.”

“You should listen to her, you know,” Sadie teased as she nudged Tavish in the ribs gently. “She’s the beta’s mate, and could probably break you in half if she wanted to.”

Tavish smiled weakly, aware that Sadie was trying to make him feel better, but the words seemed to be overshadowed by some sort of dense fog, as though his mind was trying with all its might to thrust negative connotations to the words upon him, and he shivered involuntarily as memories of his childhood began to slowly surface—of his father pitting dominants against each other, executing male subs, him smacking around his poor mother right in front of him...

Tavish swallowed as bile began to rise in his throat, and he shook his head violently. Part of him knew, logically, that the oncoming moon was exacerbating his present state of mind, and it was not a time to trust his own thoughts. He would react to things more strongly, and it was all part of the cycle of the moon, and not wholly his own fault.

That did not help him as much as Tavish had hoped, and his eyes shifted over to the cluster of dominants, many of whom looked very sour about something, which Tavish quickly discovered probably had to do with the Alpha’s attitude, and the way he seemed to be snapping at the dominants every time they spoke.

Adina was with them, gathering their clothes into neatly folded piles before she carried them away, but not before pausing to speak to Greyback. Tavish watched as she reached up to touch his cheek with a loving, gentle caress, one which made his scowl soften ever so slightly.

Tavish looked away quickly, but he still felt the alpha’s gaze lift and zero-in on him. He shivered, and he watched Corrine out of the corner of his eye as she shifted, and effectively blocked Tavish from the alpha’s view. He relaxed a little.

“It’s okay, love,” Sadie said for what was likely the hundredth time as she leant in to peck his cheek, and then nuzzled it lightly. “We’ll keep you safe—that’s a _promise_.”

Tavish nodded, his throat closing a little as Adina approached the subs again and began to herd everyone closer to the treeline. At first Tavish was confused by this, but when she motioned to one of the larger trees and murmured, “to give you a little privacy,” while she continued to construct something of a wall of submissive werewolves between Tavish and the cluster of dominants, most of whom were now so far off that Tavish could barely smell them.

“Thank you,” Tavish murmured to her, and she smiled as Sadie and Corrine took their places on either side of the tree that Adina had gestured towards, while Tavish slipped behind it and proceeded to slip out of his clothing.

With the privacy of the forest and the scent of his fellow subs all around him, Tavish marvelled at how little he was affected by his own nakedness in a space so similar to where his attack had happened. It seemed almost odd, as though he  _should_ feel more upset, but he supposed the scent and closeness of the subs protecting him were what was presently chasing his inner demons away, and once more he felt himself positively flooding with gratitude for all that the pack subs had done for him.

“You okay back there, Tavish?” Corrine called, and Tavish found himself smiling again despite what was still to come that night.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” he replied, “bit cold, though.”

“Yeah, it’s  _freezing_ ,” she agreed with a short laugh. “Hold on, the change should come soon.” 

Almost as soon as the words had slipped past her lips, like she had spoken some sort of incantation, Tavish felt the change take him.

Tavish fell to his knees, and his trembling arms fell forward, his fingers digging deep into the frozen soil. He groaned as his back arched, a low thrum of pain lancing through his bones as they began to grow, while others cracked and reset, and his skin itched almost painfully as shaggy black fur burst from every follicle, and his wolf, at last, replaced his human form.

Tavish stood up and shook himself, and it was only then that he noticed that he was not with  _his_ pack. He tilted his head up and sniffed the air to be certain, but it quickly became apparent that he was with a different pack, in a different place.

The most curious part of all, he realized, was how  _calm_ he felt. This was not his pack, but this was also a good place, a safe place.

Tavish moved to circle the tree and find the sources of the scents, and almost immediately ran into two of the new pack wolves—one was so pale grey that she was almost white, while the other was black with flecks of white near her underbelly. Both wolves yipped and barked when they saw him, their tails wagging excitedly, and the two females rushed forward to nuzzle him affectionately, while a third female began to make her approach, this one also a pale grey, as well as being very visibly pregnant.

Her scent told Tavish that this was the Alpha Bitch, and Tavish lowered his tail respectfully as she came closer, and bumped her muzzle against his affectionately.

Tavish lifted his tail a little, it wagging slowly as the Alpha Bitch moved to stand alongside him, lining up her body with his, while the black wolf bracketed him, and the pale grey wolf took up the rear.

Oddly, Tavish did not feel cornered by this formation, but safe. He happily followed the lead of the other wolves, that is, until they broke through the cluster of submissives, and the scent of dominant wolves brushed his nose.

Tavish froze, and let out a high, terrified whine. The Alpha Bitch licked his muzzle in an attempt to comfort him, but no longer did the presence of the wolves around him feel reassuring. Now, he felt trapped.

Tavish let out a long, mournful howl, calling for help, but none came. His eyes found the cluster of dominants, and in the centre he saw  _him_ . The Alpha.

The subs did not try and urge Tavish forward; in fact, they seemed almost at a loss for what to do. Tavish tried to back away from the dominants, but the wolf behind him stopped him from going very far. He began to shake, terrified, and even as he watched the alpha snap at the other dominants, dispersing them, Tavish still could not curb his sheer terror.

The Alpha Bitch licked Tavish’s ear, perhaps in an attempt to calm him, but his shaking did not subside, and instead worsened when the Alpha broke away from his confused dominants, and began to approach the subs.

Tavish yowled, stepping from foot to foot as he tried to decide what to do, while the wolves that bracketed him nipped at his fur, though in his panicked state, it was difficult to tell if it was an admonishment, or an attempt to calm him.

There was no escape. The Alpha was getting closer. Tavish dropped to the ground and curled up into a tight ball, hiding himself from the Alpha’s view. He could hear him getting closer, and he trembled with fright despite his efforts to remain still. Foolishly, he hoped that the Alpha would not see him like this, but all too soon he heard a deep growl far too close to him, and some of the body heat of the other subs disappeared, save that of the Alpha Bitch.

She let out a growl of warning, one which the Alpha did not seem to heed as he nudged at Tavish gently with his nose, huffing impatiently until Tavish unwound himself, and in a desperate hope that the show of supplication might keep the Alpha from harming him, he laid out on his back, his tail tucked tightly between his legs as he exposed his belly and throat to the enormous wolf.

The moment he laid himself out in front of the alpha, he let out a low growl, but this time it was closer to a purr, as though he approved of Tavish’s submission. He lowered himself to Tavish, who tensed, bracing himself for pain, when all the alpha did was close his jaws around Tavish’s throat for a mere handful of seconds before he pulled back, pausing to lick at Tavish’s throat as though in apology, then quickly backed away from the sub.

Tavish was so startled by the alpha’s quick retreat that for a moment he could only lay there, stunned and confused by the wolf’s actions.

Slowly, the scent of the dominants faded, and Tavish felt his muscles beginning to relax. The pale grey sub approached him, whimpering softly, and she nudged his cheek, sniffing him as she inspected him for injuries.

Tavish wagged his tail weakly to indicate that he was all right, and slowly got up on weak, shaky limbs, still in shock over what had happened. He shook himself in an effort to dispel some of his weakness, then looked around the territory, only to find all of the dominants, save one, were missing.

A smaller black dominant who Tavish did not recognize was circling the edges of the clearing, watching the subs for any signs of trouble. The others were all absent, even the alpha.

Tavish whined, confused more than concerned by their absence, while one of the other subs bumped his cheek with her muzzle affectionately, once again trying to calm him, though it did little to help.

 

~*~

 

Despite all Tavish’s efforts, he could not enjoy this moon, no matter what he tried. Instead he lay curled up in a small copse of trees, hiding from most of the others while he watched the subs run and play with the pups, and the Alpha Bitch, in no state to run, was lying on her side several feet from her charge, but she got up from time to time to check on Tavish, though thankfully she did not force him to engage with the pack.

 

After close to an hour, Tavish felt the first inkling of fear reassert itself as the dominants returned, dragging two large stags behind them. At the sight and smell of the fresh kills Tavish’s stomach gurgled a little, but his fear kept him in place as he regarded the dominants suspiciously, though they did nothing more than drop the carcasses in the centre of the clearing, and the Alpha Bitch got up, leaving Tavish behind as she moved to join her mate for their meal.

Tavish curled up more tightly as he watched them eat, and once they’d finished the black sub and the beta took their place. Tavish was too nervous to join the rest of the pack for the meal after the beta and his mate had finished, and stayed in his place, shivering a little as he tried to ignore the way his stomach protested, but unfortunately he was not paying as close attention to the other pack members as he should have, and quite suddenly he heard the rustle of someone approaching.

Tavish jerked up in alarm to find the alpha not three feet from him, with something in his mouth, and the submissive froze like a deer caught by a hunter, but the alpha made no move to get any closer. Instead, he dropped what was in his mouth, and took several steps back, his ears twitching almost like he longed to flatten them against his head, but could not quite manage to act on such a submissive gesture.

Concurrently, Tavish could smell the blood on what the alpha had dropped, and realized that it was meat from the carcasses.

Slowly, hesitantly, Tavish stood up on weak and shaky legs. The alpha’s ears perked up a little, but he did not move as he watched Tavish inch towards the meat, until Tavish was able to see it clearly, and saw that it was part of the hindquarter of one of the stags, as well as two full kidneys.

Had Tavish been in his human form, it was unlikely that he would have accepted such a gift. The pain of what had happened to him was still too near, and the prospect of accepting a courting gift of any kind from a dominant was still too difficult for him.

However, in his wolf form Tavish recognized that though the scent of the dominant still alarmed him, he was almost too hungry to care. Added to the fact that the alpha was sitting a respectful distance away, Tavish was quick to snap up the organ meat before he laid down to eat the hindquarter, though his eyes never left the alpha, his expression part guarded and part grateful as the alpha sat there, and snarled at any dominant who came within twenty feet of them.

Tavish’s wariness was replaced by the first inklings of trust as he ate, though he was still far too damaged to even consider approaching the alpha in thanks for the meal, but far from take offence to this, the alpha merely turned and walked away while Tavish curled back up in his hiding spot, his belly full as he slowly drifted off to sleep.

He was not even awake long enough to see the alpha beginning to circle him at a respectful distance, marking the ground with his urine to ensure no unwelcome dominants approached him while he slumbered, before the alpha and his breeding partner lay down nearby, and guarded him for the remainder of the night.

 


	5. Fault Lines

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry for the delay, guys! Updates are being moved to Sundays, however the next update will be Saturday, September 15th. After that, we’ll be on Sundays from then on. Enjoy! :)

Chapter Four – Fault Lines

 

The rays of the late morning sun woke Tavish when it began to break through the cover of the little den he had made. As he roused himself, he found that he was in the most curious of positions—for a morning after a full moon, at least. 

A thin blanket had been draped over Tavish’s still-naked form, his clothes had been left, folded neatly, by his head, and a bowl of food sat next to them with a small plate covering the top of the vessel to keep its contents warm.

Most curiously of all however was the scent that clung to these items. It was quite clear to Tavish that it was not Adina who had left these things for him, but Greyback.

And yet as Tavish glanced around nervously, Greyback was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, he was not hanging about and waiting for some kind of show of gratitude for his generosity.

Tavish lay still, pretending to be asleep while he tried to work out how he felt about all this. It still baffled him that someone like  _Fenrir Greyback_ would even bother with him, especially when he was so broken from the attack.

_It makes no sense_ , Tavish thought as he lay there, and tried to calm down his racing heart.  _Why would Greyback bother with me? I mean, last night...and today...and..._

Tavish groaned softly, and pressed his fingers to his temples as his head began to throb. This roundabout thinking was getting him nowhere, and yet he had no idea what else to do—if he went to Adina with his worries, she’d merely repeat the same reassurances to him that she had a hundred times before, and that was not entirely helpful either.

A gentle, but icy breeze swept through his den, making his blanket flutter, and Tavish shivered as he was drawn from his thoughts.

_Well, I can get dressed,_ he thought,  _that’s something, at least._

Slowly, almost reluctantly, Tavish sat up and pulled on the offered clothing of a large, baggy jumper and jeans. As far as he had been taught, there were no romantic or sexual expectations attached to a gift of his own clothes, and as a result he felt no unease in accepting it.

Food, on the other hand, was another story.

Tavish eyed the bowl of food with a suspicious eye. He could smell meat and potatoes coming from it, and despite his protesting stomach, he was reluctant to reach out and take it. He could recall his actions of the night before, and how he had accepted the meat from Greyback so readily, but that did not endear him to the alpha, so much as it unnerved him. His wolf had readily accepted the food as well as Greyback’s clear interest in him. Out of his wolf skin, the offering was paired with more painful connotations and fears. Would Greyback  _expect_ Tavish to reciprocate his affections after last night? Was he now the alpha’s official concubine? Did that mean he had to  _do things_ with the alpha now?

He felt a curious sense of interest at the idea, but like an invasive, unwanted thought, it was quickly overshadowed by fear. Just  _what_ was the alpha playing at? What did he  _want_ ?

_I need to find out what he wants of me,_ Tavish thought as he prodded at the edge of the roughly hewn bowl, his insides gnawing with hunger, but still he could not bring himself to eat the proffered food.

“It’s not poisoned,” a gruff voice said suddenly, making Tavish jump in surprise. His gaze jerked up, and he saw Greyback standing roughly five feet from him and downwind, though Tavish could not decide whether this was an attempt to sneak up on him, or to keep him from becoming distressed at the smell of a strong dominant in his midst.

“I—I—” Tavish stuttered nervously as he gazed up at the alpha, but he merely crossed his arms and frowned at the sub, though he appeared to Tavish more annoyed than sad or sympathetic.

“I take care of my pack, regardless of my interest in them, Tavish,” Greyback said simply. “This time, the food carries with it no intentions beyond wanting you to stay healthy. If it would ease your mind however, I can ask one of the subs to get you something that would not bear my scent.”

“How do I know...” Tavish trailed off, recalling almost too late that he was speaking to the alpha and shook his head. “Never mind. I’m sorry.”

“Speak, Tavish,” Greyback said impatiently, but oddly his voice still sounded gentle at the same time. “You will not offend me.”

“What?” Tavish stared at Greyback, hardly able to believe what he was hearing, but the alpha’s expression did not change. “You won’t be...offended?” Greyback shook his head. “Why not?”

“You were hurt, badly,” Greyback replied gruffly as he shrugged a little. “It would be foolish of me to expect some sort of warm response from you so soon. I am interested in you, but I am not a rapist, and I have no plans to be.”

“That’s what Adina said,” Tavish muttered softly, and Greyback arched an eyebrow at him.

“She did, did she?” Greyback asked, and Tavish smiled weakly.

“She said that if I rejected you, you wouldn’t push.”

“And do you wish to reject me?”

“Yes—no—I don’t know,” Tavish grumbled as he reached up to run a hand over his short, curly hair. “You’ve been kind to me, and have kept your distance, but I don’t know what that _means_.”

“It means I am waiting for you to be well enough to make a decision regarding my interest on your own, without the harsh memories of your attack to help or hinder you,” Greyback replied gruffly, a note of impatience in his voice that made Tavish wince. “I have very little practice in being... _nice_ like this, but I’m not about to make a romantic approach when all it would do is make you fear me, not trust me.”

“But you still want to,” Tavish pointed out, and Greyback inclined his head in a short nod.

“I acknowledge that you are still a long way from recovering, and may never be able to make yourself available to me like another sub might, but I know that I want you, and I am willing to wait for you to feel strong enough before I approach you formally. You know my interest, and now meals I bring you are merely to help put some meat on your bones, Tavish. If when you are feeling less nervous around the dominants you wish to formally decline my interest, that is fine, I am trying to both give you space and claim you—it is a confusing place for me, but I hope you understand that I am trying to help...and help myself as well, if I am being completely honest.”

Tavish did not know what to say.

Alphas by their very nature were the strongest dominant of the pack. Greyback could beat any submissive who crossed him into a bloody pulp if he was so inclined, or he could  _have_ any submissive he wanted.  _Why on earth_ would he want someone so irrevocably fucked up? Someone who might  _never_ be able to stand intimacy again?

“I don’t understand,” Tavish said at last, turning more fully towards Greyback, but still keeping the distance between them. “Part of me is flattered that you chose me, but part of me still doesn’t understand _why_ you would choose me. Because of... _that,_ I’m broken. I’m nothing even resembling who I was. I’m terrified of being near dominants, I have nightmares all the time, I jump practically ten feet in the air when someone accidentally sneaks up on me, and the idea of sex makes me feel _sick_ to my stomach. Why would you choose me? Why would you even _bother?_ ”

Greyback took a small step forward, and Tavish flinched. Sighing, the alpha stepped back again, though Tavish could not tell if he was ceding defeat, or frustrated by Tavish’s reaction.

“I suppose all creatures never truly see themselves, but you speak of yourself as though are some sort of hideous monster, Tavish,” Greyback said, a note of something agonized in his voice, so soft that Tavish realized after a moment that the sound of pain was meant for only one person— _him_. “But you...I am shocked and admittedly somewhat saddened by how you see yourself. You see this disfigured, broken shell of a being, a fallen prince, and a _victim_. I do not see you that way.”

“Then how do you see me...Fenrir?” Tavish asked softly, testing the name on his tongue, and unless his eyes were deceiving him, Tavish was certain that he could see the faintest shadow of a smile upon the alpha’s face.

“One of the strongest werewolves I have ever met,” Fenrir said simply, and smirked a little at the sub. “Many of our kind view subs as the fairer side of lycanthropy...the weaker ones, the ones who need to be protected. But you...you had something horrible happen to you, something _no one_ should ever have to go through, and you are surviving it. Every day you get a little better, a little stronger. I can see how much you want to be better, and how frustrated you are at your own weakness. I can see that you carry a fire within you far beyond _anything_ I have ever seen a dominant possess. I can see you have the drive to achieve anything, and it is quite incredible.

“Added to that, your outward appearance is hardly displeasing to the eyes, Tavish. Your chocolate skin, your inky hair, your golden eyes, your lean, deliciously muscular form...and yet you ask _why?_ ” Fenrir broke off suddenly, and shook his head while he breathed deeply, as though he had momentarily lost himself in his desire for the sub that sat before him.

“You are the most perfect male sub I have ever met, Tavish,” Fenrir said in a firm tone, as though he was commanding Tavish to not argue with him. “Whether I have to wait a month, a year, or a hundred years, I _will_ wait for you.”

Abruptly, Fenrir got up and walked away.

Tavish watched him go, his brow pinched in confusion. It had felt as though Fenrir had more to say, but despite this, the alpha never looked back once.

When the alpha had disappeared from view, Tavish let out a tiny sigh, pulled the bowl of food towards him, and began to eat.

 

~*~

 

After the encounter with Fenrir, Tavish began to make more of an effort to associate with the rest of the pack at mealtimes. He still instinctually shied away from the dominants, and would sit in a cluster of subs to mask the scent of them. If this bothered any of his fellow packmates no one voiced any word of protest, but Tavish had to wonder if that had to do with Fenrir stepping in on his behalf, or if the rest of the pack really didn’t mind his attitude towards the dominants. 

 

Tavish glanced past the sea of submissives. The dominants were all milling about, hardly passing Tavish or any of the others subs a glance, all of whom were sitting in a big clump, save for Corrine, who seemed to be glued to her mate’s side with a starry smile upon her face.

“Don’t mind her,” Adina said softly as she leant in and pressed up gently against Tavish’s side. “Corrine just found out that she’s pregnant—they’ve been trying for almost six years for a baby.”

“But she’s a submissive like us, isn’t she?” Tavish asked, his eyebrows rising in confusion, “aren’t they naturally fertile?”

“Naturally, yes, always, no,” Adina replied. “We can have fertility problems just like any other creature. She and Ulrich have been working closely with the pack healers to find a way to let her conceive.”

One of the other subs clucked her tongue impatiently, and crossed her arms. Adina frowned as she added, “no one asked you, Ciara.”

“My fertility is just fine,” the sub continued sourly, and Adina rolled her eyes. Tavish glanced between the two women, certain that he was missing something, but for the life of him, he had no idea _what_.

“Ciara has always been jealous of Corrine, pay her no mind,” Adina murmured softly, as though she had heard Tavish’s thoughts.

“It’s...oddly familiar,” Tavish admitted with a weak smile. “Alpha or Ulrich won’t make the subs fight for them?”

“What?” Adina asked, blinking in confusion. “No, of course not. Where on earth did you get an idea like _that_?”

“My old pack...” Tavish mumbled awkwardly, unwilling to look at Adina as he spoke, “the alpha would do that. Make the subs fight for his affections.”

“Ah, I see,” she said, and nodded her head a little. “Well, that is not how we do things here. Fenrir always saw that sort of attitude as reprehensible as dominants thinking that they own us, and tries to keep that sort of thing from happening, as much as he can, at least.”

“Why does he care so much?” Tavish asked, shaking his head a little as his eyes once more passed the subs and fell to the dominants, this time fixing upon Fenrir himself. “I don’t get it. He’s the _alpha_. He could have anything or anyone he wants. So why does he bother with this...this... _niceness_?”

“I think the better question is, why wouldn’t he?” Adina asked, and Tavish stared at her in blank confusion.

“I don’t understand.”

“Fenrir is the strongest dominant here, perhaps the strongest in the British Isles. He has taken down every single would-be usurper who has challenged him, and done so while barely breaking a sweat. His strength is unmatched, Tavish, and he is feared and respected in equal measure for this power.

“But such strength does not give him a license to kill,” Adina continued, her tone deadly serious. “He respects his pack because he knows that we trust him to keep us safe. If he were to break that trust, he would be facing the entire pack’s retribution, and he knows this. He wants a pack that supports him, not one that fears him.”

Tavish’s eyes fell again to Fenrir as he strode across the territory, while he seemed to be in deep conversation with a smaller dominant with dark hair, who Tavish knew to be part of the regular hunting party. For one wild moment he wanted to break the circle of subs and  _demand_ some answers on why this pack was like this, and why he felt no need to abuse his power like any normal alpha might, but the moment he inched forward and caught the first faint whiff of dominant werewolf blood, he panicked, and hurried back to Adina’s side.

This time she said nothing, and rubbed his back gently as Fenrir walked away.

 

As time began to slowly pass for Tavish, every day he tried to break the circle of subs at mealtimes and during recreational periods, only to find himself panicking the moment he got close to the edges. 

After what felt like the hundredth time trying this, he did not go running to Adina or Sadie, and tried to calm down on his own while he watched Ulrich and Corrine together, both of whom seemed to be almost bursting with happiness and excitement in light of their good news.

After a few moments however, the stress of being so close to the dominant scent became too much for Tavish, and with a frustrated growl, he retreated back to the centre of the group of subs.

Adina was there in an instant, and she moved to embrace him as she always did, but at the last moment seemed to sense that he was in no mood for such a show of affection, and abstained as she asked, “something wrong, dear?”

“I’m just...” Tavish trailed off, and heaved a sigh. “I’m so tired of feeling this way—of being so jumpy and scared all the time, and I still don’t understand why Fenrir or the rest of you lot are so...so... _okay_ with me being so bloody skittish. I mean, isn’t it frustrating to deal with, me being so scared all the time?”

“Sweetheart, this attitude isn’t your fault,” Adina said softly as she moved in to gently rub his back. “You had something _awful_ happen to you, and it wasn’t your fault—”

“—of _course_ it was my fault, Adina!” Tavish interrupted with a soft sputter as he struggled to keep his voice low, so as to not be overheard. “I’m a _sub,_ and they did those things to me _because_ I am a sub. Obviously it’s my fault.”

“Oh, honey, _no_ ,” Adina said despairingly, but in a soft tone similar to Tavish’s. “No, it was _not_ your fault. It was _theirs._ Nothing— _nothing_ gives someone the right to violate you the way they did. I don’t care if you were naked and baring your arse to them, it _still_ gives them no right to hurt you.”

“But—”

“—no,” Adina interrupted firmly. “Your status within a pack, as a sub, or dom, or alpha, beta, omega—it doesn’t matter. Nothing ever gives someone the right to hurt you like that, not ever.”

“How can you believe that, when there are people like Bryce strutting about, thinking that he owns us?”

“Because Fenrir makes it so,” Adina replied, her voice firm. “Fenrir keeps us all safe, and reminds the doms of their place. He believes that we deserve body autonomy, and we can decide when to have sex, and when to bear children. Bryce is one person, our Alpha’s beliefs are shared by most, if not all of the rest of the pack.”

Tavish did not know what to say to that.

He had heard such statements before, many times, but Tavish still had a hard time believing them. Why would Fenrir  _bother_ with such a thing? He didn’t understand.

Tavish’s gaze drifted to the alpha, who was striding across the territory, and seemed to be headed for the supply cave. His back was straight, his gait was strong, and he had a leather jacket thrown over his bare upper body to stave off the winter chill. Even from such a distance, Tavish could  _feel_ the power of the man. Without even getting close enough to smell him, Tavish knew how strong the alpha was.

So why would he  _bother_ with all this niceness and understanding?

Tavish swallowed, and nodded his head to Adina as though he understood and accepted her words while a plan began to form in his mind.

He needed to find out what the alpha was playing at, and if interrogating him face-to-face was what it took, he knew that he needed to do it.

Somehow.

 


	6. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Next update will be September 23rd. Enjoy ^.^

Chapter Five – Family

Days turned into weeks, and another moon passed for Tavish, though Fenrir still kept his distance, even in his wolf skin.

The alpha hovered, snarling at any other dominant who dared to get too close, and he brought Tavish meat from the kills so that the sub would not need to stress himself by getting too close to the other dominants of the pack.

The morning following, like the last one, Tavish woke with a blanket covering him, and clothes and food nearby.

And like the last moon, Fenrir kept his distance, only turning away when he was confident that Tavish would eat on his own without the alpha telling him to do so.

It was comfortable, in an odd way, and as the days passed Tavish began to grow used to this odd sense of safety. This pack was more of a family than his old one had ever been, and he was beginning to love it deeply.

 

On the morning of his tenth week with the pack, Tavish woke and dressed, then headed to breakfast, but when he reached the main area of the territory, he realized with a start that both Adina and Fenrir were absent, as well as Corrine and Ulrich. Fenrir and Adina’s five youngsters—Ainslie, Nina, and the triplets—Ryder, Rae, and Rhys—appeared more hyperactive than usual, and they kept running around and giggling instead of eating, running the overseeing subs ragged in the process. Tavish noted that in place of Fenrir or Ulrich, one of the other dominants, a young wolf named Wu-Fei, was overseeing things, though he was quickly distracted from the scene when Sadie all but skipped over to him with a huge grin on her face.

“Adina went into labour early this morning,” she said softly, despite the lack of need for her to whisper. Obviously, it was no secret. “Alpha, Ulrich, and Corrine are with her, along with Daanish.”

“Oh,” Tavish said, uncertain what else he could say in response. “Will she give birth soon?”

“Soon,” Sadie replied, shrugging a little as she spoke. “It could be another hour, it could be another five hours. These things are a bit unpredictable.”

“Oh, yeah,” Tavish replied, flushing a little, which made Sadie giggle. “And...er, Fen—I mean, Alpha is with her?”

“Yeah,” she replied, and nodded. “Alpha is really devoted to her and his pups. And his pack, of course.”

“Of course,” Tavish echoed, his gaze straying towards the healer’s cabin as he spoke, while he tried to work out exactly what he was feeling.

Given how Tavish had grown up, he felt none of the jealousy that a wizard or muggle-raised wolf might. Polyamoury was normal for most alpha wolves, and even some betas. However, he could not deny the longing he left in his stomach as he stared at the building; part of him wished that he was allowed to be there for the woman who had done so much for him ever since he came to the new pack.

And for Fenrir too, though his feelings where the alpha was concerned were still so muddled it was hard to tell what exactly those feelings really were.

“Don’t worry, Tavish,” Sadie said as she clapped him on the shoulder gently. “You’ll get to meet the baby soon, like the rest of us. Lucky we aren’t doms, eh? They have to wait _ages_ for baby snuggles.”

“Yeah,” Tavish agreed with a weak smile as he allowed Sadie to steer him to the kitchens tent before he sat down in his usual sea of subs, while he continued to try and work out how he was feeling about everything, and, more importantly, _what_ he was feeling.

“Oh, love, it’s okay,” Sadie said as she leant in the nudge Tavish’s cheek with her own. “Your big, strong dom hasn’t forgotten about you, he just needs to be there for Adina right now.”

“ _What_?” Tavish sputtered, his face flaring a deep scarlet at the implication. “I didn’t—I mean, I _don’t_ —Sadie, I have _no_ idea what you’re on about!”

“Tavish, it’s fine,” Sadie replied, her voice softening a little as though she realised too late that she’d touched on a sensitive subject. “We all see how you look at Alpha—like you’re cross with him and want him at the same time. I’m sure it’s complex, after everything you went through, but he’s a good man, and won’t hurt you.”

“That’s what I keep hearing,” Tavish said dryly, and she flushed a little at Tavish’s pointed look that he offered her.

“I don’t mean to be pushy,” she said apologetically as she hung her head and tugged absentmindedly at the grass below her feet. “I just want to see you happy, and I think Alpha could be that for you.”

“And this has _nothing_ to do with Alpha’s happiness?” Tavish asked suspiciously, arching a brow at her, and she flushed a deeper red.

“Sorry,” she said, and it sounded as though she meant it, which was a little surprising to Tavish. “I won’t say anything else, I promise.”

“You can say stuff,” Tavish replied, “just not about...you know, _that_.”

“Everyone’s been playing matchmaker with you and Alpha, eh?” Sadie asked, her mouth twitching at the corners into a faint smile, and Tavish groaned a little as he nodded.

“Ever since I’ve started seeming a little better,” he replied as he stabbed at a hunk of meat in his bowl, and crammed it into his mouth. “The only person who’s being patient and _not_ pushing is Alpha. Maybe you lot should start following his example.”

“Oh, I know, but—”

“—no, seriously,” Tavish said sternly, pushing back his nervousness at being so commanding behind a mask as he spoke to his friend. “I know you lot _think_ I’m all better and it’s sunshine and roses now, but I’ve still got a way’s to go before I feel like myself again, and jumping into a dominant male’s bed isn’t exactly what I’d call a good idea right now. I know my own mind, Sadie, and if I tried to get close to Alpha before _I_ feel ready, it’ll just make things worse, not better.”

“But...” Sadie paused and bit her lip. “How can you be so sure?”

“How can you be sure that you’re afraid of spiders until you dive into an acromantula’s lair?” Tavish asked, arching a brow at her, and she paled.

“I get your point,” she said quickly, her voice escaping her as a squeak before she calmed a little and added. “I’m sorry, really. I won’t say anything about it again—I swear.”

Tavish eyed her dubiously, but said nothing as he went back to eating his breakfast. In truth, he doubted whether she actually understood his point or not—arachnophobia and rape recovery were hardly interchangeable, but he had no idea how else to make her at least begin to understand that pressuring him into a relationship wouldn’t help him at all. He was at least grateful that Adina hadn’t been doing that, and though he knew Sadie meant well, it didn’t exactly make him feel any better, either.

 

After Tavish had finished eating, he excused himself from the group, and made for his den—the copse of trees he had woken up in the morning after his first moon with the pack. He needed to think things over, and he felt as though it would be easier to do so in his safe space on his own, instead of surrounded by other subs.

Tavish heaved a tiny sigh as he sat down, and tried to ignore the compulsion to get up and go to the healer’s cabin to check on Adina. It wasn’t his place, after all, and he needed to be respectful.

“All alone today, little one?”

The voice was sickly sweet, and made Tavish feel as though he had suddenly been doused in ice water. His gaze snapped up, and he felt his head spin a little as he saw how close the unfamiliar dominant was to him. He recognized him as a pack member, but beyond that, this man was a stranger to him. Tavish backed up a little, but that only made the dominant inch closer, effectively trapping the sub in his safe space, much to his horror.

“I just needed to—to—to...” Tavish trailed off, his voice shaking, while he tried to work through the blinding panic, and think clearly.

“To...?” he asked as he crouched down until he was eye-level with Tavish. “Our alpha and your bodyguards are a little busy at the moment, and instead of hiding in that cluster of subs, you’re over here, all by yourself. Why is that, little one?”

“D-Don’t c-call me that,” Tavish stammered as he tried, and failed, to control his breathing as his vision began to swim. “I just want to be alone. Please, go.”

“ _Go_?” the dom asked, arching a brow. “Why would I do that, because you belong to _Alpha?_ If he even wanted you, you’d be with him right now. Instead you’re out here, all alone. Have you thought about why that is?”

“Because Adina needs me, and I trust my pack to watch out for our subs, not traumatize them further,” a cold voice suddenly chimed in, and Tavish watched with wide eyes as the huge dominant was grabbed by the throat, and tossed away from him as though he weighed no more than a ragdoll.

The dom grunted as he hit the ground, before Fenrir began to advance on him, his eyes bloodshot and wide, his teeth bared, and his hands curled into angry fists as he bore down on the dominant.

“Give me one, just _one_ reason why I shouldn’t rip your throat out, Bryce,” Fenrir snarled as he lifted him by his throat again, and slammed him into a neighbouring tree so hard that it made the branches rustle ominously.

“Alpha!” the dom, Bryce, protested as he clawed feebly at the hand at his throat, but despite the bloody scratches that bloomed upon the limb, Fenrir would not let go. “I thought you were done with him, you haven’t gone near him in ages!”

“Done with him?” Fenrir whispered, repeating the words back with an incredulous lilt in his voice. “ _Done with him?_ He is not a _toy_ , Bryce! When will you get that through your thick skull? He is a living, breathing werewolf, the same as us, and he deserves respect, not more harassment. How many fucking times do I need to _say_ it?”

“He’s a _sub!_ ” Bryce screamed back angrily. “He’s not like us—he’s _nothing_ like us!”

“Keep talking, you useless sack of shit,” Fenrir retorted, his voice not rising in anger, but even so, Tavish could hear the danger in it. The alpha was very close to snapping. “You are _this_ close from being ejected from the pack.”

“What?” Bryce sputtered, his eyes widening as he continued to scrabble at the hold Fenrir had on him, but if Fenrir felt any pain from his hand being torn to shreds, he didn’t show it. “All this over a—Alpha, please, no...you _can’t!_ ”

Fenrir abruptly dropped Bryce to the ground, and he crumpled at the alpha’s feet in a heap. Fenrir barely gave him five seconds to recover before he kicked Bryce hard in the stomach, making the dominant gag, then he howled in pain as Fenrir kicked him again, this time in the groin.

“You’re demoted to omega, and on sewer duty for the next month, Bryce. Maybe cleaning up our shit will make you realize how you belong down there with it,” Fenrir snarled without an ounce of sympathy in his tone. “Get out of my sight.”

On weak legs, the dominant got up and hobbled away, wheezing as though moving at all was a trial for him, but Fenrir’s unsympathetic gaze never wavered. Once Bryce was out of earshot, Fenrir got down on one knee in front of Tavish. Unlike Bryce however, he kept his distance, and knelt at an angle that gaze Tavish an escape route out of the copse of trees, should he need it, rather than caging him in.

“Are you all right, Tavish?” he asked, his voice still gruff, but soft with concern.

“I’m not hurt, if that’s what you mean,” Tavish replied, “but if I’m _all right_ in the broader sense...no.”

Fenrir nodded, his fingers curling into fists, but somehow the action did not appear threatening to Tavish. It appeared more as though Fenrir was trying to keep himself still, rather than close the distance between them.

“I thought as much,” Fenrir said at last, and inclined his head a little. “I came out here mostly because Adina’s been asking for you when she’s not loopy with pain, then I caught Bryce trying to take what’s...take advantage of you.” Fenrir shook his head, and growled. “Forget it. Want to come see her?

“Can I?” Tavish asked, his gaze jerking up a little, and froze when his eyes met Fenrir’s, but the alpha did not reprimand him for this brazen albeit accidental action. “I thought...well...isn’t this sort of a _family_ thing?”

“The whole pack is family,” Fenrir said simply. “If the healer’s cabin was bigger, I’m sure they’d all be crammed in there with us like a tin of sardines. Adina wants to see you though, you’re like a son to her, and Corrine keeps going on and on about how you’re like her little brother, so I believe the subs would be happy to see you, not feel like you’re intruding.”

“Oh, okay,” Tavish said as he smiled, and Fenrir nodded his head as he turned, and Tavish nervously fell into step with him, though he was still cautious to keep some distance between himself and the alpha.

“Er...thank you,” Tavish said after a moment of awkward silence. “For...for saving me, I mean. You didn’t have to, and—”

“—of course I had to,” Fenrir interrupted with an impatient grunt. “You’re pack, and regardless if I have interest in you or not, it doesn’t give _any_ of my doms the right to treat you like their toy.”

Tavish flushed, recalling all the words the alpha had snapped at Bryce, but, perhaps foolishly, Tavish had assumed that Fenrir had said it for Bryce, not him.

“I’m sorry,” Tavish said after another pause, “I just assumed...well, you know where I came from, and I still find some of this life you lead here a bit hard to believe.”

“I knew D’alloume well,” Fenrir said as he inclined his head in a short nod. “One might say almost _too_ well. It’s only out of respect for you that I don’t go and snap the foolish old man’s neck for what he put you through.”

“Out of respect for...me?”

“I’d assumed you’d not be pleased if I killed your father, even after what he did to you.”

“I don’t know how I’d feel,” Tavish replied honestly. “When I think of my father now, I sort of feel...nothing. I was never close with him, not how my brothers had been, and most of them had struck out on their own by the time I was old enough to really know them.”

“You had a lonely childhood,” Fenrir filled in, and Tavish nodded.

“You could say that, yeah.”

The pair fell silent as they reached the cabin, and Fenrir stepped back, allowing Tavish to go inside first. He smiled weakly at the dominant in thanks, and watched in quiet amazement as Fenrir stepped farther back, as though doing his best to keep Tavish from feeling cornered by his presence or scent.

Tavish appreciated it, and offered the dominant another smile as he slipped into the cabin, just as he heard Adina cry out. He rushed forward, and found Corrine sitting at Adina’s bedside, the alpha bitch naked from the waist down, while the healer, Daanish, was at the end of the bed and watching everything carefully. Corrine was grimacing, though it seemed clear to Tavish that this was from pain, given that it appeared as though Adina had just crushed her friend’s fingers in something of a vice grip.

“Adina?” Fenrir asked, his voice laced with concern as he rushed past Tavish, and skidded to a halt at the end of her bed. All the man’s former attitudes of Alpha Male seemed to have dissolved, and Tavish bit his lip as he watched the supposedly unflappable man dissolve into something of a nervous wreck as he gazed at his breeding mate.

“Breathe, love,” Adina panted, and giggled a little. “Just a little contraction, I’m okay.”

“But my fingers aren’t,” Corrine quipped as she flexed her hand and winced. “Adina, I think you broke my hand.”

“Is that Tavish I see?” Adina asked, ignoring Corrine’s remark. “You came to visit me, love?”

“Er...Fenrir said that I’d be welcome,” Tavish said awkwardly, flushing a faint pink as he tried to look anywhere but at her exposed bottom half.

“And you are, of course,” she said, waving him over to her side opposite Corrine with lazy, sluggish movements. “Come, sit. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

“That’s debatable,” Corrine muttered, but Adina ignored her again as Tavish glanced to Fenrir, who nodded encouragingly. Tavish turned, stepping towards the alpha bitch nervously, until he sat at her side.

Fenrir and Ulrich stayed back, both of them in eerily similar positions, Ulrich by the door with his arms crossed, while Fenrir was standing a few feet behind Daanish, also with his arms folded across his chest, though he stayed as close to his mate as he was allowed.

“Don’t mind them,” Corrine said in a stage whisper, “they’re just grumpy that they’re not allowed in our little club until after the pup is born.”

“We can _hear_ you, Cora,” Ulrich called, which made both Corrine and Adina burst out laughing, which Adina quickly shifted to a moan of pain as another contraction seemed to hit, and she grappled for Tavish and Corrine’s hands, which she squeezed painfully, and, indeed, Tavish was certain she might have sprained something with her grip.

“Oww,” Tavish said softly as Adina released him.

“Told you,” Corrine retorted, and Tavish felt his face flush when he realized that he’d been overheard.

“It won’t be long now,” Daanish added before Tavish could come up with a response, “You’re at ten centimetres, Adina, so on the next contraction you need to push, okay?”

“Oh, please, Lady Moon, let there only be one in there,” Adina said feebly, which made everyone, even the dominants, laugh.

“Don’t worry, Adina, you can do it,” Daanish encouraged with a wide smile as he scooped up a fluffy white towel and placed it between Adina’s parted legs, and used his wand to summon a few other items from around the cabin, including a fuzzy white baby blanket decorated with images of wolves, and a little matching white cap. “And... _push!_ ”

Adina screeched, her entire body bowing forward as she held onto Tavish and Corrine. The alpha bitch’s face turned a blotchy red as she pushed with all her might, while Tavish and Corrine played the part of her cheering section, and Daanish smiled widely at her.

“Good, good!” he cried. “Now, Alpha, you need to get ready to hold your child because your mate is going to be a _little_ wiped out, we’re almost there...Adina, _push!_ ”

Adina did as she was instructed, and suddenly the soft, shrill sound of a baby’s cries filled the air as the child came out, much faster than Tavish would have expected. He watched as Adina fell back on the bed, her entire body sagging with exhaustion as everyone praised her, while Daanish used his wand to carefully cut the cord and clean off the squalling newborn with the towel. Tavish watched as the baby was cleaned much more thoroughly than a regular towel should have been able to accomplish, but, he supposed, perhaps it was imbued with some sort of wizard magic that he was unaware of.

Daanish wrapped the baby in the blanket that he had ready, and popped the cap atop her little head, the entirety of cleaning her off and wrapping her up being accomplished in under fifteen seconds.

“Ready to hold your baby daughter?” Daanish asked softly as he stood up with the infant in his arms, and Fenrir took a tentative step forward, his expression softened as he gazed at the little bundle that Daanish was holding.

“Watch her head, love,” Adina reminded from the bed, and Ulrich chuckled when Fenrir scowled at his mate.

“I think after six kids, I’d know to watch their heads, Adina,” he said gruffly, while Corrine silently got up and moved towards her mate, smiling warmly as she fell into Ulrich’s embrace before the pair turned and headed for the door. Fenrir carefully took the tiny bundle into his arms, and gazed down at the newborn with a look of wonder and awe upon his face.

The baby looked exponentially smaller in Fenrir’s arms, given how big he was, and Tavish longed to stay and gaze at him, which was curious, given all that had happened in the last hour, but he recognized that this was a family moment, and moved to get up and leave the parents alone.

A sluggish hand shot out, and stilled Tavish’s movements. Tavish turned, and saw Adina smiling at him warmly, while Daanish was carefully laying a blanket over Adina’s exposed bottom half.

“Please, stay,” she said softly, and Tavish eyed her quizzically.

“But...isn’t this a family affair?” he asked, and she nodded.

“Exactly,” she replied in the same soft and exhausted tone. “Stay.”

Tavish sank back down in the chair, confused but pleased as he watched Adina force herself to sit up with a faint wince, while Fenrir sat at her opposite side.

“You were amazing, Adia,” Fenrir said softly, his tone loving and sweet, leaps and bounds away from anything he had heard from the alpha before as he handed the infant to her mother, and Adina’s smile softened as she rocked the child gently in her arms. Fenrir leant in and pressed a kiss to her temple, and she turned to accept a kiss to her lips, and once again Tavish had the strangest impression that he was intruding on a private moment, but neither of them asked him to leave.

“It’s my turn for a name, right?” she asked, and he nodded.

“Nothing stupid,” he warned, and she laughed as she continued to rock the child in her arms.

“I like...Violet.”

“Violet Greyback has a nice ring to it,” Fenrir agreed, nodding a little, and Adina giggled a little as she moved in to press a tiny kiss to the baby’s forehead.

“What do you think of the name, Tavish?” Adina suddenly asked, and Tavish started a little at being included in such an intimate way.

“Oh, I...er...Violet is...good.”

“You sure about that?” Fenrir asked with a teasing smirk, and Tavish flushed again.

He opened his mouth to respond, when suddenly the pleasant peace was broken as a blood-curdling scream filtered in from outside of the cabin.

 


	7. Collapse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Next update will be September 30th. Please note the addition of the Character Death tag; though if you’ve been following the full series, you probably know what’s gonna happen. This is a little shorter than I would have liked, but I hope you guys enjoy it anyway :)

Chapter Six – Collapse

“What was that?” Adina asked, her voice shaking and her eyes wide, but Fenrir didn’t answer. “ _Fenrir!_ ” she shouted as more screaming flooded into the cabin, and Fenrir’s gaze snapped to his mate. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” he replied as he stood up, his movements tense and jerky, as though every instinct told him to stay and protect his mate and newborn pup. Unfortunately, as the alpha, he would not have such a luxury as to hide away. “Stay here, both of you.”

Tavish watched as Fenrir began to move towards the door, paused, and stopped to brush Tavish’s shoulder lightly with one hand, then without even glancing at him, he rushed to the cabin’s door and hurried outside.

Without waiting, Tavish raced over to the window of the cabin and sat to the edge of it, ensuring that anyone outside would not be able to see him, and looked out, while baby Violet began to cry, and Adina did her best to shush her.

Beyond the shelter of the healer’s cabin was a scene like something out of a nightmare.

Ulrich was kneeling in a pool of blood and body parts, the decapitated head Tavish recognized as Ciara, and Ulrich was openly weeping as he rocked an unmoving Corrine in his arms. Her skin was white, but her veins stood out as almost black against her skin, and her eyes were open and staring blankly up at him—dead.

Added to the horror of the scene, a man was making his way into the territory—at least, Tavish  _thought_ he was a man. He had white skin and red eyes, with two snakelike slits for a nose, and a witch and a wizard flanked him. The wizard had long blond hair, and the witch bore a mane of dark, curly hair.

“Tavish?” Adina asked uncertainly once the baby had settled down again, “what’s going on?”

“You don’t want to know,” Tavish replied softly, his voice laced with horror, and he leant closer to the window, just barely able to hear their voices through the pane of glass.

“It appears I’ve come at a rather bad time,” the newcomer said, his voice high and cruel, and the sound of it was enough to make Tavish shiver. “What a shame— _two_ of your pack members, dead, and yet you still refuse my offer? I could give you _protection_ , Greyback, and yet you continue to repudiate me.”

“Three,” Ulrich choked out as he continued to cling to Corrine’s body, clearly unwilling to let her go. “ _Three_ pack members.”

“Oh, was she with child?” the man asked, his voice devoid of sympathy, and his companions laughed coldly. “What a _shame_.”

“Speak your piece and get out, Voldemort,” Fenrir said, his voice laced with warning.

“Voldemort,” Tavish whispered, not wholly aware that he was even speaking out loud, and from the corner of his eye, he saw Adina tense.

“Such rudeness,” Voldemort said as he withdrew his wand, and Tavish froze, his breath caught in his throat. “I ought to punish you; my offer means I am giving you everything your little pack could ever want.”

“And what do we want?” Fenrir asked, and Tavish watched the alpha casually slip into a fighting stance, though the wizard did not seem to notice. 

“ _Power_.”

“Wrong,” Fenrir replied without a moment’s hesitation. “What we want is to be _left alone_.”

“And yet you are still persecuted mercilessly by the Ministry,” Voldemort continued as though he had not heard him. “Were I to take power, you could have all humans you could eat. Adults, children, whatever you wish, and you would not be penalised for doing so. In fact, you could start, I think, by devouring the Potters.”

“I don’t care who these _Potters_ are,” Fenrir retorted, “you, like so many wizards before you, refuse to learn about our kind—we don’t eat humans. The rare time that we have is a result of harsh winter conditions and desperation, not thanks to a taste for human flesh.”

“They have defied me,” Voldemort replied, “and the man, a pureblood, sullied his line by marrying a mudblood. I must kill them before they have a chance to breed.”

“I don’t give a flying fuck what they have done to you, or what imagined slight they have committed,” Fenrir snapped, “nothing you can say will ever make me want to join you. I just had a pup, not an hour ago. My place is here, to protect them, not off fighting some war that has nothing to do with us.”

Voldemort’s falsely friendly expression fell, and his face twisted into a look of unhindered fury.

“Then perhaps this will convince you,” he said coldly, and lifted his wand. “ _Sterilitas Maxima!_ ”

Tavish watched as a blue-white light shot from the end of Voldemort’s wand, corkscrewed through the air, and flew towards the window he was gazing out of.

Tavish dived out of the way with a cry as the curse crashed through the window, the broken glass slicing into his cheek, just as Adina began to scream in pain.

“ _Adina!_ ” Fenrir cried, his eyes bulging with horror, while Tavish rushed to her side. She was pale, tears were dripping down her cheeks, but he saw and smelt no blood, which was a small mercy. Tavish tried to take Violet from her while she rode out the pain, but her hands clamped down on the child, and she refused to let her go.

“Oh, she’s not dead, just barren,” Voldemort said sweetly. “No more children to hold you here. But if you refuse me again, believe me when I say I _will_ kill her, and that little boy-toy of yours, and your children, and _everyone here._ ”

“It’s okay, Adina,” Tavish whispered as she stroked her hair, while she continued to shudder with pain, and Daanish hurried forward to examine her, “i-it’s going to be okay.”

“Gone...gone...” she moaned, her tears darkening Violet’s baby blanket, while in the background Voldemort and Fenrir continued to converse, though now Tavish had completely blocked it out as he kept his focus on Adina.

“Adina, take this,” Daanish said as he held out a bright blue potion to her, “it will help with the pain.”

Still openly weeping, Adina parted her trembling lips and accepted the potion, while Violet squirmed and fussed in her blankets.

The moment she had choked down the potion she hugged the newborn close, and buried her face in the tiny crook of the baby’s neck, finding solace in her child’s scent. Tavish continued to rub her back and hair, doing his best to comfort her like she had done for him so many times, while Daanish used his wizard magic to mend Tavish’s cut cheek, as well as the window.

Daanish took Tavish’s place by it, listening in to Fenrir and Voldemort’s conversation with a miserable, lost look upon is face as he gazed across the room at the devastated Alpha Bitch, while Tavish stayed by Adina’s side loyally.

Despite Tavish’s best efforts, he could not calm Adina down, nor would she let go of her newborn and attempt to rest. Tavish looked across to Daanish helplessly, but the healer’s focus had shifted to the voices permeating from outside, and his eyes were not on Tavish or Adina.

 

The three sat in silence, Daanish getting up occasionally to offer Adina more pain potion, but no matter how much she took, she still seemed to be in agony, and she could not stop crying. Tavish stayed close to her, and after nearly an hour, Fenrir returned to the cabin looking very grave.

“Leave us,” Fenrir said to Daanish. “Take the back exit, and make for the cabins. Do not let the wizards see you.”

Daanish obeyed, nodding once before he got up and hurried out, the back door of the cabin barely making a sound when he slipped away.

“Tavish,” Fenrir said in the same gruff tone. “There is a bedroom towards the back of the cabin. Would you mind going there and giving us a moment?”

Tavish did not even hesitate to obey—if Fenrir’s wildly out of character tone and words were any indication, this was deeply serious, and Tavish did not need to ask what was about to happen—Fenrir was leaving.

Heart in his throat, Tavish hurried to the indicated room and shut the door, but even with the space between them, he caught every word that the alpha pair exchanged.

“You’re leaving, aren’t you?” Adina asked, and Tavish felt his heart ache for her—she sounded so sad.

“I have to, Adia,” Fenrir replied, and Tavish heard the bed creak faintly when he sat down. “Voldemort killed Corrine—he gave Ciara quicksilver, and she poisoned Corrine with it, and then Ulrich killed Ciara. That wizard is now threatening to kill our pups and our pack if I don’t go fight for him.”

“Oh, _Cora..._ ” Adina let out a mournful sob, “a-and Ulrich?”

“Devastated,” Fenrir replied softly, his voice thick with guilt. “He’ll be taking up the Alpha position while I’m gone, and I want you and Tavish to stay in the Sub House, you’ll be safer there.”

“I don’t want you to go,” Adina said, her voice thick with anguish. “W-we have an hour-old daughter. We need you, _I_ need you.”

“I know, Adia, I’m sorry, but if I don’t go, he’ll kill you. Do you think I’d be able to live with that? Without you?”

Adina let out a loud sob, and Tavish covered his ears, trying to drown out the horrible sound of her heartbroken cries, but no matter what he did, the sound bled into him like a snake’s venom.

 

Tavish did not know how long Adina cried, but to him it felt like hours. Adina positively howled with misery, little baby Violet joining in, while Fenrir tried in vain to console them. 

Slowly, Adina’s weeping quieted, and when silence at last fell upon the cabin, Tavish heard the soft shuffle of someone approaching the room he was in. Even before he saw him, he could smell that it was Fenrir.

Tavish did not allow himself to overthink his actions when Fenrir at last knocked upon the door, then opened it cautiously, as though he was afraid that Tavish might not want to see him. Instead, Tavish threw himself at the alpha, crushing his arms against the man’s chest as he inhaled his scent, committing it to memory while he tried to swallow his grief.

“Don’t go,” Tavish croaked as he looked up at Fenrir through glassy eyes. “ _Please_.”

“You know that I have to,” Fenrir replied softly as he reached out to touch Tavish’s cheek, his callused thumb brushing across the skin lightly, as though Tavish was precious to him. “I’ll write, though. I’ve seen Sadie teaching you to read, and Adina knows how. She’ll help you. It won’t be forever. It’s just a wizard war, nothing as simple as _that_ is enough to kill me.”

“W-We haven’t even gotten started yet,” Tavish protested weakly. “You were supposed to be _here_ , and I was supposed to get better, and then we’d get together, and...and...” he let out a small sob, and Fenrir hugged him closer.

“I know, Tavish,” Fenrir murmured, his voice losing all of its coarseness as he gazed down at Tavish with a soft look of adoration and heartbreak. “I have longed for you since Ulrich first carried you, unconscious, into the territory, and I long for you now. I wanted to give you the world, and I want to keep you safe, always. It...it...I...” he trailed off, and shook his head, unwilling to speak, but Tavish thought he knew what Fenrir was thinking.

_It scares me how fast I am falling in love with you._

Tavish knew it, because he could feel it too.

“How long will you be gone?” Tavish asked feebly, his voice weak, and Fenrir offered him a slight half-smile while he stroked the sub’s cheek again.

“I don’t know,” he replied honestly, while Tavish leant into his touch. “It could be months, but it could be years. I have no idea how long I’ll be gone. I won’t come back until it’s finished—I don’t want Death Eaters _or_ these Order people to have any excuse to seek the pack out, _especially_ you, Adina, or the kids.”

Tavish almost wanted to blurt out that he didn’t understand  _why_ Fenrir still cared about him so much, but it seemed almost foolish to speak on it. He knew what the answer would be, and though the answer always felt nice, at the same time it hardly sounded  _true_ , either.

For whatever wild, ridiculous reason, Fenrir Greyback was in love with him.

It struck Tavish suddenly that this could be his last chance—his last chance to be near this man, his last chance to  _tell him_ , and his last chance to feel all this.

Tavish got up on his toes, his breath caught in his lungs as he fought against the whirlwind of conflicting emotions in his mind, and he kissed him.

Fenrir stiffened, visibly shocked by Tavish’s actions, and he lifted his hands, they wavering near the sub’s shoulders, as though he was debating whether or not to stop him. Thankfully, he gave in to his desires, and with something close to a growl, he dropped his hands to Tavish’s waist, and pulled him closer.

Tavish shivered, a faint whimper passing his lips as he pulled back from the sweet kiss, and gazed up at Fenrir. He was so powerful, and looked so fierce, but in that moment he looked so painfully vulnerable that Tavish almost wanted to weep.

“I won’t ask you to wait for me,” Fenrir murmured, his labour-worn fingers brushing across Tavish’s cheek gently in a loving caress. “But I won’t say anything that could mean a split, either.”

“Then I won’t beg you t-to stay,” Tavish replied, his voice quivering as he blinked back a fresh wave of tears. “I won’t remind you that we’ve barely gotten started, and most of all I will not remind you that it’s not just _me_ counting on you winning this war, but Adina, and Ulrich, and Sadie, and the pack, and most of all that tiny, brand-new life out there in the next room, counting on her father to keep us all safe.” He paused, and poked Fenrir hard in the centre of the chest. “So you _better_ come back to us, understand?”

“I will,” Fenrir replied, bowing forward to kiss Tavish again, then pulled him into a tight embrace. “You...Adina...the kids...the pack. All of you are so important to me, in different ways. I feel like a sappy little schoolkid saying all this bollocks, but—”

Tavish cut off Fenrir’s self-deprecation with another kiss, and an ache lanced through him as he beat down on the temptation to beg Fenrir not to leave. He needed to be strong, just like Fenrir was.

“Just come back to us in one piece, all right?” Tavish murmured, and Fenrir nodded.

“That’s a promise, Tavish.”

 


	8. The Space Between Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So begins the time jumps. I did my best to keep it from getting too jarring, so I hope that the way I set it up works for you guys. Next update will be October 7th. Enjoy! ^.^

Chapter Seven – The Space Between Us

 

Tavish wanted to commit Fenrir’s departure to memory. He wanted to remember how the alpha had looked as he left with the wizards, how he smelled,  _everything_ . To his dismay however, Fenrir ordered him to remain in the cabin, and out of Voldemort’s sights.

“Neither of you are to _move_ until Wu-Fei comes to fetch you, all right?” he had said sternly, his tone leaving no room for argument. “I don’t want to give this wizard _any_ leverage, and that includes seeing what either of you look like.”

“But—” Tavish began, but Fenrir cut across him almost at once.

“No buts, Tavish,” Fenrir said, his voice firm and unwavering. “This man is a _monster_. He will kill you for _breathing_ the wrong way. I don’t want you or Adina anywhere near him.”

“Okay,” Tavish said softly, his eyes misting with tears as he sat down.

His body was shaking minutely, an unwilling reaction to Fenrir’s harsh tone. Tavish tried to subdue his panic, which was beginning to assert itself more strongly despite his best efforts.

It was well beyond confusing, knowing that Fenrir had only spoken so harshly to protect Tavish and Adina, but at the same time, Tavish still feared the sound of any dominant raising their voice at him.

Tavish was still trying to get his breathing under control when Fenrir kissed them each once, then little Violet. Tavish opened his mouth to call for Fenrir to wait, but no sound came out. He watched helplessly as Fenrir turned, and left the cabin without looking back.

Tavish slumped into the seat next to Adina, tears streaming down both of their faces as they listened to the jumble of mournful wails and lupine howls that cut through the air from outside, making it clear that a few of the dominants had likely transformed.

The howling persisted, but no other sound could be heard beyond the safety of the cabin.

Fenrir was gone.

 

~*~

 

_Tavish,_

_I’m in Wiltshire now, a step up from the rat hole Voldemort had me in before, and I’m staying at this massive house called the Malfoy Manor. The female who lives here with her husband is pregnant, and won’t come near me. I think she fears I might eat her babe right out of her belly, which shows how little these people really know of our kind._

_I can’t say what I am doing. If the owl is intercepted, it would spell danger for us all, but I am safe, and you and Adina don’t need to worry about me._

_Steer clear of Bryce; I don’t want him to hurt you, especially when I am not there to rip his throat out for it._

_Love,_

_Fenrir_

 

Tavish brushed his fingers over the letter, smiling sadly as he took in every word. He was proud that he could read it on his own and without Sadie or Adina’s help this time; he had wanted to be able to keep his contact between himself and Fenrir private, and after several months of study, he finally could.

Tavish pulled a self-inking quill and scroll of parchment forward, and began to draft a response.

 

_Fenrir,_

_These last moons without you have been hard. Ulrich still insists that Adina and me eat first over the kills, which Bryce hates, both because you’re not here, and according to him I’m not your_ official  _concubine, since we haven’t...you know._

_I’m not letting him get to me. Ulrich has been a total mess, and so Adina and I are keeping him company a lot, and he cries himself to sleep almost every night. We buried Corrine in the pack territory, and Ulrich carved a beautiful headstone for her. Ciara’s remains were dumped somewhere—I don’t know exactly where, but from the way Ulrich talks, I think they threw them off a cliff or something._

_Some of the subs tried to clean up the bloody mess that Ciara’s body left, but the main area of the territory still smells like blood. Daanish says that a storm is coming, and we all hope that the rains will wash away the smell._

_I wish you were here, I feel like we should be getting to know each other face to face, not like this._

_Be safe,_

_Tavish_

 

Tavish looked his letter over, then glanced around the Sub House. It was fairly crowded with people hiding from the impending storm, but the sitting room Tavish was resting in was devoid of the one person Tavish wanted to see.

With a small groan, he got up and wove through the other subs and young children. Some of the subs were reading, some knitting, and were others playing cards, but none of them paid him any mind as he stepped out of the space and he made for the enormous shared bedroom.

Inside, he found Adina sitting by the window with little Violet in her arms, and her son, Rhys, was plopped down at her feet, playing with a plush toy wolf.

“He’s been gone for three months,” Adina said as Tavish approached, and outside the sky gave an audible rumble, which made Violet whine with discontentment, and Adina lifted the baby to her shoulder, cooing and rubbing her back to console her, while she glanced to Tavish. “It feels longer than three months, doesn’t it?”

“It feels like less to me,” Tavish admitted as he sat down with his letter to Fenrir still clutched in his hands. “The blood smell makes it feel like a shorter time to me, even though I know he’s been gone for a few moons.”

“It’s probably a curse,” Adina said as the window began to dot with enormous raindrops. “Something Voldemort did to ensure we wouldn’t forget what he did. The rain won’t wash it away.”

“Are you certain?” Tavish asked, cocking his head a little as the thunder rolled again, and Tavish watched Rhys whine and cover his ears. His mother reached down to run her fingers through his blond hair, and the boy relaxed a little.

“Fairly,” she replied. “Wizards fear us because of what we are and what we can do, which I suppose is why Voldemort was so keen to get Fenrir on his side and frighten us into compliance. Voldemort wouldn’t want us to forget the carnage he caused, and he wouldn’t want us organise some sort of uprising against him.”

“But we don’t want that,” Tavish filled in, “I can’t see anyone here wanting to take on the wizards, not even Fenrir wanted that.”

“No, we don’t,” Adina agreed as lightning flashed in the distance, and Rhys whimpered as he clambered into Adina’s lap, and she masterfully shifted her hold on baby Violet so that her son could sit on her knees comfortably, and she wrapped a consoling arm around him. “Werewolves are social animals, and have always been governed by instinct. I have never met a pack, not even a rogue pack, who wanted anything but pack security in some form or another. We have no interest in overtaking the wizards, but the wizards fear power that they cannot control, and so we are hunted.”

“Yes we are,” Tavish agreed, while Rhys’s two fellow triplets, Ryder and Rae, toddled in, blankets wrapped around their shoulders like little blue and pink cloaks. Their heads bowed a little in disappointment when they saw their mother’s lap occupied by Rhys, but they broke into twin smiles when Tavish waved them forward, and patted his knees.

“Come on, you two,” Tavish said to the two three-year-olds, “up you get.”

“Funder is scary,” Rae whined as she rested her head on Tavish’s shoulder, and he rubbed her back gently. “It makes me want to cry.”

“I know, love,” Tavish replied as he held onto them both, while Adina offered him a beaming smile, “but it’ll pass...all things eventually pass.”

“What’s that?” Ryder asked as he reached out to pat the scroll of parchment in Tavish’s hand.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Tavish said, and laughed a little. “It’s a letter to Alpha. I was gonna ask your Mum to look over it for spelling mistakes.”

“I miss Alpha,” Rae whined as Adina motioned for him to hand over the letter, and Tavish obeyed, watching her unroll the parchment with her wand, holding it in midair as she went about correcting any mistakes and cleaning up his handwriting. “When will Alpha come back?”

“We don’t know, love,” Tavish replied, giving her a small squeeze. “He’s doing important stuff to keep us all safe, and he’ll be back when it’s all finished.”

“But when will he be finished?” she asked, her eyes wide. “He’s been gone for ever and ever.”

Tavish opened his mouth to respond, but found that he had no idea what to say to the child. He shifted his gaze to Adina, eyes pleading, and she offered Tavish as well as her children a gentle, reassuring smile.

“He’ll be back one day, but we don’t know when,” Adina replied soothingly. “He’s doing important work, as I said, but it’s hard to say when exactly he will complete it.”

“I wish we knowed a-zactly when,” Ryder complained, “then we could count the days until Alpha gets back.”

“Yeah,” Tavish agreed with a warm smile, “me too.”

 

~*~

 

_Tavish,_

_The moons without my pack are lonely. I feel as though there are precious few people I can actually admit this to without feeling pathetic, and you are one of them._

_From your last few letters, I get the impression that dominants no longer frighten you like they used to, and I wish I was there to take meals with you, both under the moon and not, and take you to bed—if not for the more obvious reasons, then just to hold you, until you feel safe enough to let me take you._

_The wizard papers now know who I am, although it’s not exactly the image I would have liked to see. I am apparently Voldemort’s attack dog, and over the last ten months, he has been ranting about some baby that he needs to kill, but strangely, won’t ask me to do it—which is what he usually does. He has plans for this child, but the parents keep thwarting him, and there’s murmurs that they’ll go into hiding soon, though it’s not clear when._

_I probably should not be telling you all this, if the letter is intercepted and word gets back to the so-called Dark Lord that I betrayed him in this way he might try to kill me (not that he could_ _)_ _but after one is given the moniker of_ Child Killer _and_ Baby Eater _, it’s hard to remain loyal to the cause. Voldemort has ruined me, and all I want is to be back in the territory with you, Adina, my children, and my pack._

_Love,_

_Fenrir_

 

Tavish hugged the letter close, tears stinging his eyes as he tried to hold on to the faint scent of Fenrir that clung to the parchment. Tavish had been with the pack now for almost a full year, and yet Fenrir had been absent for most of it. 

Outside, leaves were falling. Some of the newer pack members were talking about having a Hallowe’en feast, despite the fact that Ulrich had stomped on that idea almost immediately.

“ _We are not celebrating the Witch’s New Year—we are werewolves, not wizards_ ,” he had said.

“Maybe Fenrir will be back by Hallowe’en...” Tavish muttered to himself, and heaved a soft sigh as his gaze returned to the letter in his hand. He _ached_ for Fenrir. He had laid himself bare to Tavish in letter after letter, and now all Tavish wanted was to see his mate come home, and to consummate their relationship.

Shaking a little with longing, Tavish tried to distract himself by grabbing some blank parchment and his quill, and began to compose a response.

 

_Dear Fenrir,_

_I miss you. I miss you so much it hurts._

_I wish you were here, because in the last few weeks my bottom half feels less dead and lifeless, and I feel like if you touched me in any way at all, we would tumble into bed faster than we could blink. I think I’m ready for you—but without you here, the most I can do is wait; I won’t give up on you._

_Bryce is being his usual pain-in-the-arse self, and challenges Ulrich almost weekly to fights for the title of Alpha. Since Ulrich is still deep in mourning for Corrine, all he does in his spare time is spar and train to stay strong, and as a result the fights are always over in about ten seconds. Ulrich still refers to you as Alpha, and never calls himself that._

_I feel like we’re all waiting for you, like life will begin again when you’re back with us._

_Stay safe,_

_Love,_

_Tavish_

 

Tavish stared down at the completed letter, tears misting his eyes as he gazed at it. It was true; he missed Fenrir so much it was like a constant ache in his stomach. Those rare nights when he would feel the tentative tickle of arousal, it was always Fenrir he thought of to bring himself off, and no one else. 

Tavish curled up by the window, and gazed out at the pleasant autumn day. The pups were supposed to be raking leaves, but instead they had only raked enough to create a giant pile near the centre of the main area of the territory, and were now taking turns cannonballing into the pile, while they shrieked with laughter.

Tavish smiled as he watched them; he longed to regain that sort of innocence, but without Fenrir in the territory, it was difficult to do.

“Fenrir...” Tavish muttered to himself as he pressed his palm to the window, and he watched the edges of the pane of glass around his hand begin to fog up. “Will I ever see you again?”

 


	9. Caught

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Next update is scheduled for October 14th. 
> 
> **Trigger Warning: Victim-Blaming and Emotional Trauma**

Chapter Eight – Caught

 

Tavish rang in his first full year with the pack, and yet, Fenrir still had not returned to them.

More troubling to Tavish, other than his absence, was his sudden silence. Consequently, both Tavish and Adina began to worry that he had not made it through the war.

“He’s not dead,” Ulrich had said forcefully on those occasions when Tavish or Adina lamented on the lack of contact with their mate. “He’s _not_. I know Fenrir, and he wouldn’t just _die_ in a wizard war.”

Despite his belief in Fenrir’s wellness, Ulrich still sent off Wu-Fei to find out what had happened to their fearless leader.

 

Wu-Fei was gone for several weeks, and when he came back he looked grim, and bore only one thing—a wizarding newspaper.

He handed it to Ulrich first, and all hope seemed to leave the beta’s eyes as he gazed down at the front page. He passed it to Adina, whose eyes filled with tears, and as Tavish looked at it over her shoulder at the headline, he felt a cold chill flood his body.

 

_NOTORIOUS WEREWOLF AND CHILD-KILLER, FENRIR GREYBACK, ARRESTED_

 

“Oh _no_ ,” Tavish moaned as he cupped his face in his hands.

“If he doesn’t get the death penalty or Dementor’s Kiss, he’ll be given a life term in Azkaban, that’s what it says here,” Ulrich said, his voice shaky as he took back the newspaper. “Given that werewolves can live twice as long as humans, sometimes more, he’s looking at one hundred and fifty years, minimum, if they don’t kill him.”

“Isn’t there _anything_ we can do to get him back?” Adina asked between soft sniffs as she dabbed at her eyes. “He should be here—with us. He’s only been imprisoned because that _Voldemort_ made him join.”

“I know, Adina,” Ulrich said with a soft sigh. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do, though. We’re werewolves, and no wizard would ever bother to listen to us; they think of us as beasts, not intelligent creatures. This _Potter_ baby, the Boy Who Lived...he probably could do something if he was older and was affiliated with werewolves, but he’s a one-year-old baby, and according to the papers, he’s under the protection of that old coot, Dumbledore, at some sort of undisclosed safe house, whatever _that_ means...”

“Yeah, we can wait ‘til he grows up, and this kid will have Fenrir released out of the goodness of his heart,” Tavish retorted sarcastically, and both Ulrich and Adina frowned at him, which Tavish ignored.

“Don’t say that, love,” Adina said as she smoothed a hand over Tavish’s, “we’ll find a way to get him back, you’ll see.”

Tavish had already given up hope, however, and this was verified a month later when he and Adina each received a letter from Fenrir, stamped on the outside with the words,  _Azkaban Prison_ .

 

_Tavish,_

_I have been arrested and given a life term in this hell without a trial. I was sent before some man called Crouch, and I was given a sentence without the man hardly looking up—I was sentenced alongside a man called Black, and a few others, but it seems that I am the so-called beast who turned Black’s lover as a child, though he refuses to tell me who this lover is. It doesn’t really matter—I can smell Lupin all over him, a man I had changed as a boy and intended to take as one of my own pack, well before I had a true pack, but that old fool Dumbledore got there first, and I lost the child. Now, Lupin’s lover takes every opportunity to attack me during the short window of time we are not confined to our cells._

_I feel confused by this—he was imprisoned for betraying the Potters to Voldemort, and as I hear it, they were as close to family to him, though I could never fathom betraying any of my pack to that monster. Perhaps his sense of morality starts and stops with Lupin, I am uncertain._

_One thing I am certain of is that I am never escaping this place, unless Voldemort returns to power and has need of my...skills. I would rather not believe this; for him to return means a risk of death for us all, and I would rather spend a thousand lifetimes here than risk the safety of the pack._

_Forget me, Tavish, and go on with your life. Find someone who can love you and touch you—someone who is more than ink on parchment._

_Fenrir_

 

When Tavish glanced up from his letter, eyes blurred with tears of heartbreak, he saw a similar look of pain upon Adina’s face.

“Come,” she said softly, passing the care of watching her children over to Sadie, who gathered one-year-old Violet into her arms before Adina took Tavish’s hand as she blinked, and tears dripped down the Alpha Bitch’s cheeks.

Tavish did not protest, but followed her lead away from the others and into Fenrir’s cabin, still kept immaculate by Adina and Tavish’s dual efforts to keep it ready for when their mate would return to them—and the only place they were guaranteed to not be overheard.

“What did your letter say?” Adina asked without preamble, and at her question, Tavish felt his voice die in his throat. Somehow, saying it out loud made it too real, and he hiccoughed as a single tear streaked his cheek.

“He’s in prison, and not getting out,” Tavish whispered, to which Adina offered him a sad sort of smile.

“Mine said the same. And to forget him—find a new mate.”

“Me too,” Tavish replied, shivering a little as he tried to swallow his anguish. “B-but I _can’t_. I can’t just give up on him, not after everything that’s happened.”

A soft tapping upon the door to Fenrir’s cabin startled the pair out of their conversation, though Tavish’s alarm faded when he heard Ulrich call, “can I come in? It’s me.”

“Come in,” Adina called back, and Ulrich let himself in, his expression grave, while he, too, sported an identical letter to Tavish and Adina’s.

“You two too, eh?” Ulrich asked dryly when he spotted the letters in their hands, and shut the door before he continued. “Mine says for me to officially take up the role as Alpha. Yours?”

“About the same, with different context,” Adina replied, and Tavish nodded in agreement. “What should we do?”

“I’m not giving up on him,” Tavish replied, and crossed his arms. “Maybe I’m being foolish, but I know—I _know_ he’ll come back someday.”

“You’re not being foolish, Tavish,” Adina said, “I feel the same way. He is my mate, and he is the father of my children. I could never give up on him, not like this.”

“I agree,” Ulrich replied. “We may never get him back, that’s a reality, but we shouldn’t give up hope, either.”

 

~*~

 

_Fenrir,_

_You’re an idiot._

_I’ve come to love you through these letters, so why would I give up on you now? You’re my mate in every way except physically, and that doesn’t matter to me so much—being with any other dominant but you feels wrong, and I refuse to abandon you in that place._

_I would wait for you for a hundred years if I have to, but I’ll not give up on you._

_Love,_

_Tavish_

 

Tavish was trembling slightly as he completed the letter and rolled up the parchment into a tight little scroll. For once, he was not shaking in fear, but in anger.  _How_ could Fenrir tell him and Adina to just  _give up_ on him? 

“Dominants are so stupid sometimes,” Tavish grumbled to himself as he stormed out of the Sub House, and wove through the other cabins. He then crossed the main area of the territory as he headed for the small, secluded spot where the pack’s Post Owls usually rested, and found one asleep on a low-hanging branch of a birch tree.

“Hey,” Tavish said softly, stroking the creature’s soft grey feathers as he spoke, doing his best not to startle it. Its amber eyes flicked open, and it hooted at Tavish softly, but respectfully, as though it recognized Tavish as maintaining an important position within the pack.

“Can you take this to Azkaban Prison?” Tavish asked as he held out the small scroll. “It’s for Alpha.”

The owl hooted again before it clamped its beak around the scroll before it took off, and Tavish watched it fly away, until it was little more than a speck in the distance. His heart constricted as he watched the owl, and he hoped that Fenrir wouldn’t be too cross about Tavish’s refusal to move on from him.

“So...you’re finally back on the market.”

The sudden voice made Tavish curse inwardly as he recognized it as Bryce. Though it had been a few months since he’d finally gotten over his fear of dominants, and he could be alone with ones he trusted without issue—Bryce did not exactly fall into that category.

“Whatever gave you that idea?” Tavish asked lightly as he turned around and narrowed his eyes at the enormous, hulking dominant.

“ _Fenrir_ is in jail,” Bryce sneered, not even hesitating in using his alpha’s name in lieu of his proper title. “He’s _never_ getting out. Face it, love, it’s time to move on.”

“Like _hell_ ,” Tavish retorted, the skin over the bridge of his nose warping as he bared his teeth. “Alpha will come back, you’ll see.”

“Maybe if he breaks out, but do you really think Fenrir would risk his whole pack for a little bit of tail like _you?_ ” Bryce shot back. “He’s gone, pet, and he’s _never_ coming back.”

“ _Don’t_ call me pet,” Tavish growled, and Bryce raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Ah, so the kitten has finally regrown his claws?” Bryce taunted. “You think you’re hot shit now, because Fenrir decided that you would be his little slut? His _bit on the side_? You can’t take me, _pet_ , you shouldn’t even entertain the notion. You’d think you would know that, after your little tussle with those doms from your old pack. But then, you probably _enjoyed_ it—”

Tavish saw red.

He felt his body collide with something—something  _hard_ , and he felt the joints of his hands spasm painfully. All he knew was rage, and distantly, he could hear screaming.

“Tavish! _Tavish!_ ”

More cries filled the air. Tavish felt himself being pulled away from the hard surface, and it was only then that he realized that the thing he had collided with was Bryce, and the screaming had been coming from him.

Though why Bryce looked like he’d been forced through a meat grinder was another story.

Ulrich was holding Tavish back, gripping his shoulders to stop Tavish from lunging at Bryce again. Tavish screeched, somewhere between an enraged cry of anger and pain, and reached for the threat. Only then did he notice that his fingers had shifted to half-form wolfish claws, and his hands and forearms were soaked with blood.

“Tavish, it’s okay,” Ulrich said gently, his fingers shifting on Tavish’s shoulders, as though he was trying to figure out how to hold him back without making the situation worse. “Please, _please_ calm down. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it, but you can’t kill Bryce.”

“Why not?” another voice demanded, and Tavish’s gaze flicked to the source of it, and saw Wu-Fei frowning as he glared at Bryce. “He probably had it coming.”

“Be that as it may, only the Death Circle can execute wrongdoers,” Ulrich said, and Wu-Fei let out a soft huff of disagreement, but otherwise didn’t protest.

Ulrich shifted his focus back to Tavish, his expression softening a little, and he offered Tavish a small, reassuring smile.

“Come now, Tavish,” Ulrich said, “just breathe for me, okay? I’m taking you to Alpha’s cabin, and we’re going to get you all cleaned up.”

“He—he...” Tavish croaked, his voice small and little more than a weak rasp. “He said...”

“I know, sweetheart,” Ulrich said as he slowly eased Tavish away from Bryce, until he was out of view. Tavish glanced around wildly, but when he seemed to be truly gone, only then did he begin to calm down. “Come on, let’s get you all fixed up.”

At Fenrir’s cabin Adina was waiting for them, and she relieved Ulrich of the shellshocked sub. She escorted Tavish to the bathroom, and after she stripped him, she eased him into the basin of warm water, its steam smelling sweetly of lavender, and began to wash his upper body as though he was a child.

“There, there,” Adina murmured softly as she worked a soapy flannel over his left forearm, wiping away the dried blood slowly from his dark skin. “It’s over now, he can’t hurt you in here, love...”

“H-he...” Tavish tried again to explain, the words choking in his throat, but he was determined to tell Adina what had happened. This time, he _needed_ to talk about it. “He said I e-enjoyed it. What happened to me.”

“Oh, baby...” Adina murmured, her eyes becoming achingly sad and glassy, as though she was on the verge of tears. “Oh, we all know you wouldn’t enjoy that. _No one_ would enjoy that. I think maybe Bryce was trying to get a rise out of you—but don’t worry, Ulrich will make sure that he pays for saying such an awful, hurtful thing. You did _nothing_ wrong, sweetheart, _Bryce_ is to blame for saying such an awful thing to you.”

“But why do I f-feel like it’s my fault?” Tavish asked as he sniffed, and tried to control himself, though he still felt lost. “Fuck, I thought this was all _over_ , that I was _better_ , and then Bryce goes, and...”

Tavish trailed off, unable to say more, while Adina gently tilted his head back, and massaged a small dollop of shampoo into his short hair, working her fingers in slow, steady strokes before she finally spoke again.

“The worst thing about traumatic events like this, love, is that they never go away, not really,” Adina said consolingly. “They become part of us, and we learn how to deal with the pain and move on from it, but it’s always there, at the back of our minds, shaping who we are.

“We tend to forget about it, until someone forces us to remember, often in a horrible way, like what Bryce did,” she continued, while she used a pitcher to scoop up some of the water from the basin, and run it over the top of his head. “Bryce said what he said because he knew it would hurt you, although I don’t think he quite expected you to cut him to ribbons like that...”

“He deserved it, don’t say he didn’t,” Tavish interjected sourly. “What did he _think_ would happen, after saying something like that to me?”

“Likely, he probably thought that you’d run away crying, or something to that effect,” Adina replied, her mouth twisted into a disapproving frown. “Bryce never did hold male subs in very high regard.”

“But I’m still Fenrir’s sub,” Tavish protested with a small frown, “shouldn’t that have stopped him?”

“Not anymore,” Adina replied with a soft, mournful sigh. “With Fenrir in prison, he probably feels as though Fenrir’s laws no longer apply to him.”

Tavish scowled, and glared down at the clear water that he sat in, caught between anguish at losing Fenrir, and comfort under Adina’s practiced, maternal hands. Despite all the blood that she had washed off of him, it had faded to nothing in the magically-enhanced bathwater, and all he could see was his little skinny body curled up in the basin.

For a brief, mad moment, Tavish’s mind flitted into the realm of fantasy, and he imagined his form curled up in the same bath, but with Fenrir’s thick legs bracketing his own, and his large, muscular arms cradling him, as though he was precious.

Tavish wanted that; he wanted it so much it hurt.

“Adina, will we ever get him back?” Tavish asked, and she laughed, though it was a sad sound, and not a jovial one.

“Oh, Tavish,” she said softly, “I wish I knew.”

 


	10. Years

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter may feel jarring to some of you, but I had to cram a lot of time into one chapter, and I felt that spacing it all out would make the story drag, so I wound up with a lot of time jumps in here. I hope it doesn’t feel too abrupt to you guys, and the next chapter will be up on October 21st. Enjoy ^.^

Chapter Nine – Years

 

Time no longer had any meaning for Tavish. It was as though the colour of the world had been lost, and he was thrown into a monochromatic existence. 

Every week was the same—Bryce would challenge Ulrich for his position in the pack, Ulrich would beat him down in less time than it took to blink, and all the subs would breathe another sigh of relief. The moon would come, and Tavish and Adina would eat first when the hunts had been completed, then Ulrich would take his turn, then the rest of the pack.

Tavish hardly noticed the progression of time at all, except for how he watched all six children of the alpha grow up around him, and slowly depart from the pack, off to make their own mark on the world.

The first to go was Ainslie.

He was the eldest of Fenrir’s six children, and had been twelve when Tavish had first arrived. Now eighteen, he was leaving the pack quietly, a rucksack over his shoulder, after kissing his mother on the cheek, he embraced Tavish like a brother.

“I’ll write, Mum,” Tavish had overheard the boy say as he turned back to her, “I know I’m not s’posed to, but I will, all right?”

“You just take care of yourself, baby,” Adina said, her voice thick with anguish. “Wherever you find yourself, just be strong. You are the son of a great alpha, and he will always be with you wherever you go.”

“I know, Mum,” Ainslie replied with a small smile as he pulled his mother in for another hug, followed by one each from his five siblings. “I’ll be careful, and you lot just...be safe, yeah?”

“It’ll be weird being the oldest kid around here,” his sister, Nina, replied teasingly, and Ainslie offered her a small smirk. “You just...be careful, all right?”

Ainslie offered his sister one last reassuring smile, then turned and headed off into the woods without looking back.

 

“I always hated this tradition, so does Fenrir,” Adina murmured to Tavish once her children had dispersed. “To make the pups of the alpha strike out on their own when they come of age...it seems cruel somehow, don’t you think?”

“Then why do you do it?” Tavish asked just as softly. “This pack already adheres to few of the more traditional werewolf customs, why keep to this particular one?”

“It was Fenrir’s idea,” Adina explained softly, her eyes still on the spot where her son had been not ten minutes earlier. “When we first got together we had no pack—it was just _us_. He saved me from werewolf furriers, and when we found this pack, the alpha was ready to turn us away—he didn’t want Fenrir to challenge him, you see.

“But Fenrir knew that being lone wolves was impossible for us—I was already pregnant with Ainslie, and we _needed_ a pack. So...Fenrir challenged him, and won.

“Fenrir never liked many of the laws that govern our race,” Adina continued with a soft sort of smile. “But he was reluctant to change too many things too soon, especially with people like Bryce around.”

“That’s fair,” Tavish said as he nodded a little. “If you change things gradually, you’re less likely to have old-fashioned twats like Bryce kick up a stink about it.”

Adina laughed softly as she nodded, and silence fell between them. Tavish leant against her side, uncertain what to say. Adina, in turn, wrapped her arm around him, embracing him like he was one of her other children, and he heaved a small sigh, while Adina spoke exactly what he had been thinking.

“Fenrir should’ve been here to see him go,” she said, and Tavish nodded in agreement.

“I miss him so much, Adia,” Tavish said softly. “I wish we didn’t have just letters. I wish he was here with all of us.”

“I know, love,” Adina replied as she turned to kiss the top of his head, “me too.”

 

~*~

 

Two years seemed to fly by, and next it was Nina to go. 

It felt chillingly familiar to Ainslie’s departure, albeit with more tears. The triplets, now eleven, did not want their big sister to go, and Nina did not wish to go, either.

Tavish stayed back, giving the family their little moment, before he stepped up to offer his own goodbyes to the young woman.

 

~*~

 

It all became so monotonous that Tavish began to wonder what he was even doing with his life, until one day, two letters came for him and Adina.

It had been fourteen years since the end of the war. Of Fenrir and Adina’s children, only Violet remained with the pack, but she would be gone within the next year.

Worse still was over the last year there had been whispers, murmurs that Voldemort had returned, which terrified the pack, but Tavish had never believed it—more than that, he never  _wanted_ to believe it. Not even having Fenrir back with them would be worth setting that monster loose upon the world once more.

The letters were curious. They were both beacons and invisible at the same time—cloaked so heavily in both wizard and werewolf magic that it was difficult to work out just how the owls had made it to the territory without anyone noticing—it would have been very much like two empty spaces flying across the sky—someone  _had_ to have noticed—it seemed almost impossible for the letters to have arrived without incident.

Those with use of a wand looked them over for curses and found nothing, but neither could they open them. Physically, the only people who could touch the letters at all were those that they were addressed to—Tavish and Adina.

“What’s this about?” Tavish asked nervously as he gazed down at the letter that bore his name. “Why is this happening? Is it even _safe_?”

“It’s safe,” Ulrich reassured him with a small smile. “Someone just really wants to talk to you two, and they _really_ didn’t want anyone intercepting the letter.”

Tavish exchanged an uncertain look with Adina, only to find that she was already ripping open her letter, her eyes alight with hope, and the way her gaze misted over when she unfolded the parchment told Tavish exactly who the letter was from.

He held his breath and mirrored the Alpha Bitch, and nearly wept when he saw the familiar handwriting splayed across the page.

 

_Tavish,_

_I’m out of prison._

_Me and a few other Death Eaters were liberated from Azkaban by Voldemort, and I’m back at the Malfoy Manor._

_I’m not supposed to be sending this, it’s very risky and there’s every chance that this will wind up in the wrong hands, but I couldn’t walk upon the free ground again without telling you and Adia where I am._

_No one knows Voldemort is back beyond a few on the light side, though Fudge is doing everything he can to ruin the reputation of the Potter boy and Dumbledore, so the wizarding community at large is still mostly in the dark. Despite this, I can’t come back to the territory, not until it’s over, one way or another._

_Please understand—I want to see you, Adina, and the pack more than I want to breathe, but I can’t risk leading the Order of the Phoenix to our doorstep. They’d kill us all without so much as a thought. As soon as this is over, I will come back, I promise._

_Love,_

_Fenrir_

_PS. Don’t respond to this letter—there is a chance that it could be traced. I’ll know if you got it—part of the spellwork. Just keep yourself safe, and I will do the same._

Tavish did not bother trying to stop the flow of tears as he hugged the letter close. Fenrir was alive. Fenrir was  _free_ .

 

“Will the war end soon?” Tavish asked Ulrich, his voice eager and hopeful, and Ulrich smiled at him sadly.

“I hope so, Tavish.”

 

~*~

 

It was just over two years later that Tavish got another letter from Fenrir. As his mate had promised, the war had not touched them, and the pack was safe, secreted away in the woods where no one could find them. 

This letter bore Azkaban’s insignia, and Tavish’s eyes flooded with tears as he reluctantly slit the envelope to read the short letter.

 

_Tavish,_

_I’m so sorry._

_Love,_

_Fenrir_

 

~*~

 

 

As the years once more began to pass and peace reigned over the wizarding world, Tavish had assumed that he’d once more be resigned to the monotony of the days and weeks passing by with nothing happening at all, while he wondered if he’d  _ever_ see his mate in the flesh. They’d only ever shared one kiss, after all, which was just barely enough to bolster Tavish through a nearly twenty-year relationship.

_Has it really been so long?_ Tavish often wondered,  _it still feels like yesterday that I kissed him goodbye._

However, peace was apparently not to be, as Tavish received a most curious letter from Fenrir, just one year after his second round of imprisonment.

 

_Tavish,_

_Word has reached me here of a new group making itself known in Britain—they call themselves Red Moon. A few of the members have been imprisoned here, and during recreational time I’ve been attacked by them, so frequently in fact that I’ve been secluded in their Dark Creatures cell block, which is both maddening and peaceful, in its own way. They could hardly do someone like me any real harm, but if I retaliated there is every chance I could be penalised for it, which makes life in here a little tricky._

_I am getting off track, however—the group is an organization who sees werewolves as a pestilence that needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. Those in here with me have bragged to my face of the number of our kind they have murdered, and some mysterious plans they apparently have to truly rid the world of our kind, though I’m not sure if I completely believe it._

_I will be telling Ulrich this, but I am asking you as well—please stay close to the pack, don’t leave the territory for any reason, and don’t wander off alone. I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you or Adia._

_Stay safe, and please be careful._

_Love,_

_Fenrir_

 

Tavish looked up from his own letter, and like so many times before, he saw Adina and Ulrich bearing similar looks of anguish upon their faces.

“Ulrich?” Tavish asked uncertainly, making the beta turn to him, his mouth pulled into a frown.

“Yeah, Tavish?”

“What does this mean for us, exactly?”

Ulrich sighed deeply, and pressed the letter down against the bench he sat upon. They were once more in Fenrir’s cabin, where they always read their letters, in case there was information in them that the rest of the pack should not see. The beta was quiet for a long moment, before he finally glanced up to Tavish and Adina, his expression grim.

“It means that the war isn’t over—not for us, anyway.”

 

~*~

 

Despite Fenrir’s dire warnings, no harm came to Tavish or any of the pack. 

Tavish supposed that this had to do with the fact that he’d followed Fenrir’s instructions diligently, and had not strayed from the territory in the three years since he first began to remind him of Red Moon’s ever-growing presence. However, even if they had not been overshadowing pack life like a dark cloud, he would never feel compelled to leave. Tavish loved his life with the pack, and had no desire to go anywhere any time soon.

 

Until one day in early summer, when Fenrir’s letters abruptly stopped.

Tavish felt his mind flare with panic, terrified that Fenrir had at last grown tired of him, only to find that both Adina and Ulrich had lost contact with the alpha as well.

“What’s going on?” Tavish asked worriedly, his voice breaking a little as he spoke to the beta. “Is he all right?”

“I don’t know, Tavish,” Ulrich ground out, his teeth clenched, though after so long, Tavish could tell that the frustration was not directed at him, but at the situation. “I’ll write him again, and hopefully he’ll say something.”

 

A month and another moon passed them by, and still there was no contact from their leader. Tavish began to truly believe that Fenrir might be dead, but he didn’t dare voice this concern with Ulrich, who point-blank refused to believe it.

“He’s lost contact with us before,” Ulrich pointed out stubbornly, “this is no different. He is _not_ dead.”

Despite this reassurance however, Tavish couldn’t help but worry. Why had Fenrir stopped responding? What was  _happening?_

Then,  _it_ happened.

It was mid-morning. Tavish was helping some of the subs in the kitchens tent wash up after breakfast, while the others who occupied the space were salting meat to pack away for the winter.

Tavish was in the middle of rinsing soap suds off of a roughly hewn wooden bowl when a thunderclap sounded through the clear sky, making everyone jump and cry out with shock and fear. They all knew that it wasn’t thunder—it was a warning.

Someone unknown had entered their wards by means of wizard magic.

Tavish dropped what he was doing, and ran out into the main area of the territory. Subs had clustered around Adina nervously, with a few dominants circling them, some in wolf form, and others with their wands out.

The moment Adina saw Tavish, she urged him forward, and the protective circle closed around him.

“Ulrich’s gone on ahead,” Adina whispered, “it’s only two people, according to him, so we don’t think it’s a full-scale attack, but we can’t be too careful.”

“Is it...Red Moon?” Tavish murmured uncertainly, speaking softly so that no one nearby would hear him, but still Sadie let out a tiny squeak of fright at his words, and grappled for one of his hands, seeking comfort from her fellow sub.

“I don’t know, love,” Adina murmured as she hugged him close. “We need to wait and see, but Ulrich is more than a match for two wizards, if it comes to that.”

Barely twenty minutes had passed, and yet to Tavish it felt more like hours. The whole territory was dead silent—parents had hidden their children away in their cabins, but Adina and Tavish wanted to face this threat head-on, like their mate undoubtedly would, and many of the subs felt compelled to protect them, leaving them (perhaps foolishly ) out in the open. Tavish was afraid, but determined, and the presence of the dominants around them made him feel safe—whatever happened, he knew that if these intruders were unfriendly, their pack would be more than a match for them.

“Someone’s coming back!” one of the subs suddenly cried, pointing to a dense spot of trees, and every wolf still in the vicinity whipped towards it. The wind blew, and Tavish caught the scent of the approaching men.

There were two of them, that much he could tell. The first was Ulrich, and the second made Tavish stop cold.

“It _can’t_ be...” he breathed, hardly able to believe it.

“It is!” Adina cried at the same time, and the group let out a joyous cheer as Ulrich broke through the trees, smiling broadly, with Fenrir Greyback at his side.

Tavish did not wait, but instead broke out of the cluster of subs and dominants. Tears caught the wind as he ran at his mate, who let out a soft, throaty chuckle when Tavish threw himself at the dominant, and crushed their lips together in a hard kiss.

His mate was  _home_ .

 


	11. Home Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This was supposed to be the last chapter, but as usual I got carried away, and so there will be one more after this one, followed by a short epilogue ^.^ Enjoy, next update will be October 28th.

Chapter Ten – Home Again

 

The kiss was wonderful.

In fact, it was more than wonderful. Tavish knew of no word or phrase that could completely encapsulate what he was feeling—joy, love, excitement, and sorrow for having been left for so long without his mate, and at last a sense of completion. His mate was home—he was really and truly  _home_ .

When Tavish at last stepped back, his breathing a little ragged as he tried to think of what to say, he found himself wholly at a loss, which made Fenrir smirk a little, apparently pleased that he’d managed to turn his concubine’s brain to mush in one fell swoop.

“My turn, my turn,” Adina called, tears in her eyes as she threw her arms over Fenrir’s shoulders, and kissed him deeply.

“Don’t _I_ get any kisses?” Ulrich half-teased, making Tavish and Adina both laugh.

“Buy me a drink first,” both subs quipped at the same time, and they began to laugh as Fenrir glared at his beta, a look that clearly said, _don’t even think about it._

“Tavish,” Fenrir said, his voice deeper and raspier than it had been the last time he saw him, and he waved for him to come forward.

Tavish obeyed happily, rushing to his mate’s side, Adina opposite him, and both subs folded themselves into his arms while around them dozens of questions were pelted at the alpha.

“Alpha!” cried one of the younger doms, “what _happened?_ ”

“How did you get out?” asked Wu-Fei.

“Alpha, what happened to your _hair_?” piped one of the children, making Fenrir chuckle as he momentarily let go of Tavish to pat the little girl on the head before he took hold of his concubine again.

“Come, everyone,” Fenrir called to them, “we will sit at the bonfire, and I will answer all of your questions. I’m back for good, and I have no plans to go anywhere again.”

“You better not,” Tavish added as they began to lead the pack towards the log benches that encircled the ever-burning bonfire, “we have twenty _years_ to make up for.”

“And we’ll start soon, pet,” Fenrir promised, bowing down to nibble at Tavish’s ear, making him giggle. “Just as soon as I put the pack at ease.”

Fenrir turned to speak to Adina, his voice low so that even Tavish could not hear them, despite the fact that they were right next to him. Tavish felt an odd sense of abandonment from his alpha’s attention to Adina, though he felt it had more to do with the fact that they’d been without him so long, and less to do with jealousy of Fenrir’s attention to his breeding partner. However, Fenrir seemed to understand this well enough, and shifted his arm to rub Tavish’s back gently, as though he was trying to silently reassure him that he had not been forgotten.

Tavish felt the sour edge of his mood quickly dissipate, and he leant against his mate while he slowly led him and Adina towards the fire.

Fenrir sat down, and turned back to Tavish, offering him a tender kiss, while Tavish reached up to twine his fingers through Fenrir’s hair. Though it had been blond when Tavish had first come to the territory, now it was a shock of slivery grey, which suited him, oddly enough.

The pack cooks rushed to the kitchen tents, and came back out with wide platters filled with tankards of mead. They passed the first one to Fenrir, followed by his mates, then Ulrich, before they began to pass them out to the rest of the pack, along with milk sweetened with honey to the children.

Fenrir’s gaze fell to the children, and his blank expression shifted to a sad sort of smile. As though Adina could read his mind, she reached for his free hand, and squeezed it gently.

“Violet grew up knowing all about you,” Adina said softly. “And she looks exactly like you. She mated with the alpha of a neighbouring pack, and has one son, named Fenris. I know she would see you, if you reached out to her.”

“That is not how things are done,” complained Bryce, who had clearly overheard her. “The alpha’s children strike out on their own, no contact.”

“Shut up, Bryce,” said Tavish, Ulrich, and Adina all at once, and the wolf scowled at the admonishment.

“You’ve gotten more brave in the face of dominants,” Fenrir said approvingly as he bowed forward to nuzzle the crook of Tavish’s neck. “I like it.”

Tavish smiled, the expression growing to a grin when Fenrir’s large hand fell to Tavish’s thigh, and he squeezed the limb gently, the touch heavy with promise.

Ulrich cleared his throat pointedly, and Tavish flushed a little, hiding behind the tankard of mead in his hands. Fenrir chuckled, and removed his hand in order to snake an arm around Tavish’s waist, and pull him closer.

“Alpha?” Sadie ventured, her voice high like a chirping bird as she gazed at their leader. “Can you tell us what happened? You were gone so long, some of us started to really believe that you were never coming back.”

“Not all of us,” Ulrich muttered to himself, and both Tavish and Adina smiled at that, while Fenrir chuckled softly.

“That’s a long story, Sadie,” he said with a small chuckle, pausing to take a swig of his mead, then gazed around at the circle of his pack before he spoke again.

“I suppose it all starts with Voldemort forcibly recruiting me...that day,” Fenrir began, his arm tensing around Tavish, while on his other side, Adina shifted closer to him.

“Voldemort recruited me, using me first as a warning to those who would oppose him, then later as the leader of his werewolf army. He had me turn strong youths and adults who would not join him, and after their families rejected or abandoned them, I was to take them in and train them as part of his army of creatures. He also had me turn little kids of adults that crossed him, and after the children were either abandoned or taken away, Voldemort would often...”

Fenrir paused, and looked sickened. Tavish swallowed thickly, certain he knew how that sentence ended, and he pressed himself up against Fenrir in silent reassurance. Adina did the same, and it seemed as though the support of his mates were what gave him the strength to carry on with his story.

“It did not last nearly as long as I anticipated, and Voldemort was soon taken down by the Potter child, and I was arrested,” Fenrir continued. “In a way, I was glad, assuming I could clear my name and come home, but I’d forgotten two important things: that I was dealing with wizards, and that Voldemort had allowed all manner of horror stories about me to spread. All of wizardkind truly believed that I was a child-eating monster. It’s actually something of a miracle I wasn’t executed for my supposed crimes.

“After that, not much happened for the next fourteen years,” Fenrir continued, unwinding his arm from around Tavish and transferring his mead to that hand, while his opposite arm coiled around Adina. “I did my time, I wrote letters, and I ignored everyone else in the prison. I spent a lot of time in my wolf skin so that I wouldn’t be as strongly affected by the Dementors, and then...well...Voldemort returned.

“I was liberated, and I went straight back to working for Voldemort. I wanted to come home, but he reminded me of my so-called _duty_ to him, and I had a feeling that if I refused, he would have no issue coming here and making sure I had nothing to come back to, and the fact that there was the risk that those _Order_ people may have been able to track me back to the pack, so...I stayed.”

Fenrir paused again, this time with a lost look clouding his eyes, as though he still didn’t know if that had been the right decision. He took a large swig of his mead, and began to speak again.

“The war was the same as the last one, though it seemed like Voldemort gained ground much more quickly this time round. When Potter finished off Voldemort for the second time, it was truly over, and we all knew it. I tried to leave, but I was caught again, and sent back to Azkaban. This time though, I was only in there for a few years when I was approached by the most unlikely person—Harry Potter, now a young Auror, and human mate to a werewolf.”

A collective gasp escaped the pack, and Fenrir chuckled as the wolves began to chatter excitedly.

“ _Potter?_ Mated to a werewolf?”

“Oh, we all know how _that_ will turn out...”

“Looks like there will be a new famous werewolf soon...”

“Will he come here, Alpha?”

Fenrir smirked a little, as though he had expected such a response, and he lifted his hands, one still gripping his tankard, and silence fell again.

“We all know that Potter is a powerful wizard,” Fenrir said, “but it is difficult to say what he will decide. For now, I plan to remind his mate what will happen to Potter if he does not turn him, and we will go from there. I have every intention of bringing him to the territory, but I don’t want force him here if I don’t have to—but I will if it comes to that.”

“So...Potter freed you?” Wu-Fei asked after a heavy moment of silence, “how? Why? I imagine that the Ministry wasn’t exactly keen to let you go.”

“They weren’t,” Fenrir replied with a wry smile. “I’ve no idea what Potter said to his superiors to let me go, but I imagine that locating Red Moon and keeping us vigilant about their presence outweighed the need to keep me locked up, though I have a few conditions to my release—but nothing that would impede my status as alpha.”

“We’re just glad you’re back,” Tavish offered with a warm smile, curling into Fenrir’s side, and the alpha chuckled as he drained the last of his mead, discarded the tankard, and drew both of his mates close.

 

~*~

 

Quickly, the day turned into a long celebration of Fenrir’s return. The pack cooks broke out the rest of their alcohol stores, and rounds of mead and dandelion wine kept flowing, while the hunting parties went out to procure a meal fit for their alpha, returning a few hours later with two does, an enormous stag, and several pheasants, along with a heavy bag of potatoes and other root vegetables that they’d stolen from a nearby farm. 

“Venison stew it is!” Ulrich cried enthusiastically, laughing as he led the hunting party to the kitchen tents, swaying a little as he walked, his fourth tankard of mead held aloft in his hand.

Tavish laughed as he watched the beta, not once faulting him for his behaviour—it had been a hard few years, and Ulrich deserved to relax a little after everything that had happened.

Fenrir, in contrast, was much more relaxed and less vocally jovial, as though he felt the celebration was unnecessary, but at the same time he seemed to know better than to protest it—the celebration was as much for him as it was for the pack, who were all thrilled to have their alpha back with them at last.

Adina was even more quiet than usual. She nursed a single glass of wine while she watched the others, her expression conflicted, but shifted to a warm adoration whenever she looked at Fenrir.

At first, Tavish could not understand why she looked so sad, but then he spotted the way her hand would stray occasionally to her flat stomach, and he understood, though he knew better than to speak on it. If the look on her face was any indication, it was quite clear that she now feared being dismissed in favour of a breeding partner who could actually bear pups.

Some of the other female subs seemed to know this too, if the way they sidled up to Fenrir was any indication, but they backed off quickly when Adina bared her teeth at them in warning.

Fenrir chuckled, apparently caught somewhere between amusement and concern, and he wrapped his arm more securely around Adina, whispering something to her, while he nibbled at her earlobe, making her smile faintly. Fenrir unwound his other arm from Tavish, and coiled it around her front, his hand splayed across her stomach, and snaked down to the parting of her thighs, making her flush and laugh as she pushed him away halfheartedly.

“Get off, you beast,” she said affectionately, her entire demeanour relaxing as she turned to kiss him. “Your apologies are unnecessary, but accepted.”

“You don’t need to bare your teeth at the other females, love,” Tavish heard Fenrir murmur, “you are the only breeding partner I’ve ever wanted, and you cannot be replaced so easily. Though you defending your status does have a sort of...allure to it.”

“Get a _room_ , you two,” Tavish remarked, grinning as he spoke, and his words seemed to draw the alpha pair from their bubble, and Adina smiled at him bashfully, while Fenrir offered him a teasing smirk.

Fenrir leant away from Adina for a moment, and brushed his knuckles of his left hand across Tavish’s cheek in a loving caress, as though he was silently reminding Tavish that he had not been forgotten. Tavish opened his mouth to speak, but his words were cut off by a sweet, tender kiss from his alpha.

“I will be back for you later, pet,” Fenrir purred, then without another word, he scooped Adina up, making her yelp and giggle, and Fenrir raced towards the cabins amidst the lewd hoots and hollers of his pack.

“I almost want to be jealous,” Tavish said softly to Ulrich as he watched them go, while his companion took another swig of his mead. “But Adina has waited as long as me for him to come back, and we couldn’t both be first with him...”

“You could,” Ulrich pointed out, arching a suggestive brow at him, and Tavish laughed, hiding behind his mug at the mere thought while his face flushed red.

“Oh, I couldn’t. I see Adina as a friend and almost like a mother...I could never... _you know_.”

“Yeah, I can understand that,” Ulrich replied, smiling wistfully as he stared off into the sky. “Myself, I can’t stop thinking about Fenrir’s arrival...”

“Yeah, me neither—” Tavish began, but he was interrupted by Ulrich’s warm chortle as he shook his head.

“No, not like that,” he replied, “I mean...Potter.”

The beta’s gaze softened as he spoke the single name, and Tavish blinked bemusedly. Before he could ask, Ulrich continued.

“That bloke...well...he was a _nice_ looking bloke,” Ulrich said, and Tavish raised his eyebrows at him.

“I see several problems with that crush, Ulrich,” Tavish remarked, pausing to sip his drink before he continued, “first of which is he’s taken, and second of which he’s, well, a _bloke_.”

“I have no plans to interfere in his relationship, but I can appreciate him from afar,” Ulrich said with a vague shrug. “And for the record, I like both men _and_ women.”

“As long as you don’t willingly screw up his life,” Tavish replied, and lifted his tankard towards Ulrich in a mock toast. “From someone with a fairly screwed up life, believe me when I say someone actively messing with you makes things a hundred times worse.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but as far as I know, the key to someone’s heart is _not_ being a manipulative ass,” Ulrich retorted, and Tavish laughed. “No, I have no plans to intervene in his life, but there’s something about him, I can’t explain it.” He paused, and smirked. “But if I get a chance, oh, hell, I’ll be _all_ over him.”

“Poor kid,” Tavish said, still giggling as he gazed around at the rest of the pack—some were dancing, others were singing folk songs or playing instruments, while others were minding the children, who were running and shrieking excitedly—it was the happiest Tavish had seen the pack in _years_. “Woe betide him if you and him ever hook up.”

Ulrich smirked at that, but didn’t respond.

 

~*~

 

A few hours later, Fenrir and Adina finally reappeared, both of whom were looking a little worn out and wobbly, but deeply satisfied. Fenrir’s smirk widened when a few whistles and hoots were shot in their direction, and he looped an arm around his mate, who smiled, apparently quite content to give the other subs as show as she drew Fenrir into a long, drawn-out kiss.

Tavish joined in on the good-natured catcalling, laughing as he and Ulrich cheered for them, along with Sadie, who had joined them in the alpha’s absence.

“I don’t know about you, but I am going to pretend I didn’t just see Adina shoving her tongue down Alpha’s throat,” Sadie muttered, making Tavish choke on his beer. “I’m happy for them, but _blimey,_ she’s like a mum to me.”

“No arguments from me,” Tavish replied with a soft snicker, “it’s a bit odd, because I’m happy for them, but also I haven’t had my turn yet, so I’m a bit jealous too.”

“Nervous at all?” Sadie asked, “I mean...for _the act_ itself, given that Alpha isn’t exactly _small_...Not...you know, other...stuff.”

“Sade, have you even _heard_ of tact?” Ulrich interjected with an arched brow, and Tavish snorted again.

“I’m okay,” Tavish replied, still smiling with amusement at Sadie’s remarks. “I’ve had a lot of time to deal with what happened to me, and I have...I dunno, what feels like normal virgin jitters, not anxiety related to all that stuff, if that makes sense.”

Sadie opened her mouth to respond, but at that moment the alpha pair were making their way over to them, and she quickly shifted out of the way, her head bowed respectfully as the alpha and his breeding partner sat back down in their usual spot.

“You missed dinner, Alpha,” Ulrich remarked teasingly, and both Adina and Fenrir exchanged an amused look.

“Oh, I definitely ate,” Fenrir replied, and waggled his tongue crudely. Adina snorted and smacked him on the shoulder, which only made Fenrir chuckle and wrap his arms around Adina again, drawing her into his lap so that they could share another enthusiastic kiss.

Tavish rolled his eyes at their juvenile antics, once more finding himself caught between jealousy and amusement as he looked away from them and to one of the pack cooks, who had been in the midst of bringing them their late supper, but had stopped, and while he held the bowls aloft, the sub appeared uncertain whether or not it would be impolite to interrupt them.

Ulrich coughed pointedly, drawing the pair from their little bubble, and Fenrir turned to the sub, nodding a little to invite him forward. The sub flushed, and hastily carried over twin bowls of venison stew, though neither Adina nor Fenrir appeared even slightly ashamed of their overt displays of affection.

“Ta,” Adina said kindly as she slid off of Fenrir’s lap and accepted one of the bowls, while the alpha accepted the other with a small nod of thanks.

“Thank you,” Fenrir added, and when the sub had left them alone, he turned to Ulrich as he began to eat, and arched a brow at him. “Did I hear that right, Ulrich? You lot ate without your Alpha present?”

Ulrich raised a brow, his eyes sliding momentarily to Adina, as though he was tempted to bring up his earlier crude comment, but seemed to think better of it at the last moment as he said simply, “extenuating circumstances, Alpha—plus, it didn’t seem like you or your mate planned on coming up for air any time soon.”

Fenrir snorted, eyeing Ulrich as though he couldn’t decide whether or not to reprimand him for that remark, but in the end shrugged, and turned his attention to his stew. 

Most of his attention, at least, as his free hand came to rest on Tavish’s back, just above his arse, as though partially in promise, and partially as a show of claim.

Tavish smiled indulgently, and leant against Fenrir’s side.

Whatever was to come that night, he knew that tonight was going to be a night to remember.

Tavish bit his lip as he watched his mate eat, impatient for him to finish.

He could hardly wait.

 


	12. Mated

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: At last we have reached the final chapter. I will be posting a short epilogue next week, October 28th. Thank you guys so much for your support of this little story that got a wee bit out of hand!

Chapter Eleven – Mated

 

Tavish was equal parts nervous and excited for the celebrations to wind down so that he could have his turn with his mate, though he’d yet to fully comprehend what would happen  _during_ his turn. 

Admittedly, he was more than just  _a little nervous_ , regardless what he said to Sadie or Adina. This was a  _big_ step, and there would be more than just kissing involved this time.

_Am I really ready?_ He wondered, chewing on his lip as he watched Fenrir dance with Adina, and he smiled a little to himself as he observed the alpha pair. They both seemed fine after their drawn-out romp, and Tavish fidgeted a little as he tried to imagine  _himself_ in some sort of situation like that, but couldn’t quite manage it.

A flash of memory invaded his senses, and Tavish jumped a little. An instant later it was gone, and he gritted his teeth in frustration. Twenty years on, and he  _still_ couldn’t let go of what  _they_ did to him? Why was he so  _weak_ ?

A hand touched his back suddenly, and Tavish yelped in shock, sloshing beer down his front in the process, and yanking him almost violently from his thoughts.

When he blinked, Fenrir swam into view, his eyes heavy with concern, but he kept his hands to himself as he gazed at Tavish.

“Baby, are you all right?” he asked softly, the pet name making Tavish flush a little. “I came over to check on you, and you damn near pissed yourself when I touched your back.”

“Sorry,” Tavish mumbled, “you just caught me at a bad moment, I guess. I’m not afraid of doms— _or_ you—anymore, but I was thinking about stuff, and...you just surprised me, is all.”

“I’d like to help you get cleaned up,” Fenrir offered, his tone awkward, as though he was not wholly used to being so delicate with people, and Tavish flushed with embarrassment as he nodded.

“Please,” he said, and Fenrir nodded as he carefully looped an arm around Tavish, and guided him away from the ongoing festivities, and towards the cabins. A few hoots and whistles followed them, and Tavish felt his face burn at the implication, but Fenrir, in contrast, did not react to the sounds one way or another.

“Don’t listen to them,” Fenrir murmured once they had disappeared into the labyrinth of buildings. “I may be a monster in the wizarding world, but you know the truth about me, and I’d never take you to bed if you do not wish to be there. If your reaction to my touch was any indication, you may not be as ready as I thought you were.”

“Don’t treat me like a little kid,” Tavish growled. “I _do_ want that, you just caught me when I was lost in a flashback. It doesn’t mean I don’t want you, or _that—_ I _do._ ”

Fenrir raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t respond. It seemed as though the alpha almost didn’t believe him, but seemed to think that voicing this would lead to an argument, and thus, thankfully, kept quiet.

When they made it to the alpha’s cabin, Tavish shivered a little. The stain on his shirt was getting cold, and paired with the heavy scent of sex in the space, it left Tavish feeling both nervous and aroused.

“Sit here,” Fenrir instructed, guiding him to one of the benches that circled the fire pit. “I’ll be right back.”

Tavish obeyed as he watched Fenrir step from the room and towards the hall. He was back in traditional garb for a dominant werewolf—that is to say, next to nothing, save for a pair of sturdy jeans that made his arse look  _incredible_ .

_This is all so confusing,_ Tavish thought as he slouched forward a little, but otherwise didn’t move from his spot.  _I want him, then I don’t want him, I’m excited, then I’m afraid. I was supposed to be better by now, not this...mess_ .

Fenrir returned, drawing Tavish from his thoughts, and saw the alpha bearing a damp flannel in his right hand. Tavish was grateful he was able to pull himself out of his own thoughts this time, rather than being startled from them like before.

The alpha knelt in front of Tavish, his free hand falling to the hem of his T-shirt. He paused and glanced up to the sub’s face, clearly asking for permission to proceed. Instead of giving it, Tavish pulled the garment off himself, and Fenrir pressed the still-warm flannel to the stain upon his chest, and moved the piece of fabric in slow, deliberate circles to clean up the beer.

Tavish could not tell whether Fenrir was trying to be thorough or draw out the moment, but with each stroke Tavish shivered, his uncertainty somewhat eclipsed by longing as he sat there, shivering while he gazed up at the dominant, unsure what to say, or how to proceed.

“It’s all right, pet,” Fenrir murmured softly, as though he’d read Tavish’s mind. “Nothing will ever happen between us if you do not wish it to. I have waited twenty years for you, and I am content to wait a little longer, if that is what you need.”

“Oh, if the humans could see you now,” Tavish teased, “who knew the fearsome _Fenrir Greyback_ could be so considerate.”

Fenrir smirked, banishing the flannel with a lazy flick of his wrist, then cupped the back of Tavish’s neck to draw him in for a kiss.

“I’d rather they not,” Fenrir murmured against his lips. “When we are alone together, I’d hope that we would _not_ have an audience.”

Tavish lurched forward with a little gasp, and kissed Fenrir hard, knocking him back against the hard-packed ground of the cabin while he abandoned all his reservations in favour of kissing his mate into oblivion. Far from complain, Fenrir let out a soft growl closer to a purr, allowing the sub to perch in the dominant’s lap comfortably before he kissed him again.

“Tavish,” Fenrir murmured, a hand resting upon Tavish’s cheek, and slowed his actions. Tavish blinked, his mind still hazy with arousal, and he gazed up at Fenrir in confusion. Before he could ask, Fenrir said, “are you _sure_ about this? Not fifteen minutes ago, you all but screamed from the lightest touch, and now I can feel you pressing up against me like a bitch during breeding season.”

“I told you,” Tavish replied impatiently as he pressed another kiss to Fenrir’s slightly swollen lips, “that was because you caught me at a bad moment. I have wanted this—wanted _you_ —for years, Fenrir. I’m nervous, I am, but I still know what I want.”

“As long as you’re sure—”

“—no matter how sure I am, I know you’d _still_ ask me if I was okay with this at least five thousand times,” Tavish pointed out teasingly, which caused Fenrir to chuckle softly.

“Well, fine then, I’ll stop asking,” Fenrir replied with a small, amused smirk. “But I’ll _not_ mate with you on the floor. Come on, up we get.”

Before Tavish was able to utter a single syllable of protest, Fenrir wrapped one thick, muscular arm around the back of Tavish’s shoulders, and the other under his knees, lifting him up in one swift motion that made Tavish laugh as he clung to his mate.

Fenrir carried him over to his mess of furs, sitting down heavily as he pulled Tavish close, he still cradled in Fenrir’s arms, and they kissed again.

This kiss was missing the rough edge that it had before. Instead it was tender, and almost gentle. It sparked Tavish’s every cell with almost burning need, and he whimpered as his hands fell to Fenrir’s shoulders, and he tried to draw his mate even closer.

“Oh, my sweet, sweet little mate,” Fenrir purred, shifting his grip in order to rub the back of Tavish’s neck, a move that was both in claim, and to relax him. “I promise that you will _love_ this.”

“Help me forget all of the bad things,” Tavish replied in between kisses. “When I think of sex, I _only_ want to think of you.”

The moment that he’d finished speaking, Tavish felt himself flush. He knew the words were on the side of corny, but Fenrir did not seem to care as he chuckled again, and moved in for another heart-stopping kiss.

“That’s a promise, Tavish.”

“Please,” Tavish whimpered, and let out a tiny gasp as Fenrir shifted him gently, until Tavish was pinned beneath Fenrir and the tangled mess of furs. All he could feel was hot flesh and hard muscle pressing against him, but where once it may have been frightening, now it was nothing short of liberating. Fenrir showed him, in one fell swoop that he _could_ move on from what had happened to him, and he _could_ enjoy sex again.

Tavish didn’t really know what to say or do, but Fenrir clearly did, guiding the kiss and touching Tavish positively  _everywhere_ . His fingers brushed over his cheeks, his hands moved down to grip his shoulders, then migrated to tease his nipples, before he trailed them down farther still, until he stopped—infuriatingly—by coiling his hands around Tavish’s hips, and he brushed his labour-roughened thumbs over the jut of his hips.

Tavish whimpered, the sound plaintive, though he had no idea how to ask for what he wanted—it was just too confusing. How did one ask for something in this case? All he really knew was that his cock was hard and aching, and he wanted—no,  _needed_ —Fenrir to touch him.

“Just breathe, pet,” Fenrir murmured, chuckling softly as he spoke. “I’ll give you everything you need, and more. That’s a promise.”

Fenrir’s lips moved to Tavish’s neck, and he shuddered as he felt the alpha’s tongue lave over the exposed skin, making him moan. Tavish’s eyelids twitched, caught somewhere between opening and closing, and Fenrir chuckled again as he closed his lips over a patch of skin in a toothless bite, and sucked.

It was pain, but it was pleasure, and Tavish let out a short cry of surprise at how the two could intermingle so beautifully. He rested a hand at the back of Fenrir’s head, tangling in the long strands of silver hair, moaning as he tried to draw out the sensation.

“More,” Tavish panted, “p-please, _more_...”

Fenrir let out a soft growl, and dug his fingers into the waistband of Tavish’s jeans, tugging the garment off smoothly and leaving him naked beneath his mate. Tavish had previously thought that it might feel odd to be starkers in front of someone else, but in the moment he was far too aroused to feel anything really, beyond his need for Fenrir.

Tavish reached out, somewhat clumsily, to tug at Fenrir’s jeans in a similar fashion, but he couldn’t get them to come off. Fenrir smirked, and thumbed open the top button, while Tavish smiled gratefully and slid the garment the rest of the way down, only to gasp when Fenrir’s gargantuan erection popped out of the garment.

“Sweet Moon...” Tavish breathed, “that’ll never fit in me!”

Fenrir threw his head back and laughed loudly, his hands falling to rest on Tavish’s bare thighs while he continued to laugh, the sound full and warm, making it clear that though he was amused by Tavish’s words, he was not laughing  _at_ him in the strictest sense.

“Oh, Tavish, you are so innocent and naïve, it’s damn near precious,” Fenrir said, leaning in to press a soft kiss to Tavish’s lips, the angle making their twin erections brush together, and Tavish shivered a little at the contact. “But I have never hurt a partner before now, and I’ll not start with you.”

“I trust you,” Tavish replied, “but I still don’t really believe that you’ll fit.”

“Shall I prove you wrong, pet?” Fenrir asked, arching a brow, “you’ll _love_ it.”

Tavish nodded, not quite sure how to respond, all of the answers that came to his mind at that moment sounded horribly cheesy, and he didn’t want to say something stupid and ruin the moment (though, admittedly, it was somewhat moot at this point ) . Instead, he rolled onto his side and lifted one leg to his chest, displaying himself to his mate in silent invitation.

Fenrir smiled, and shook his head a little, rolling Tavish once more onto his back.

“Like this, pet,” Fenrir replied, showing him how to spread his legs and hold his knees to his chest, exposing himself, but also enabling them to fully see one another during the act. Privately, Tavish was grateful for this—if he could see Fenrir, there was less chance that he might lose himself in a flashback, and forget who was touching him.

Tavish watched his mate, holding his breath as Fenrir muttered something softly and flexed his hand, immediately coating his index finger in a clear, shiny substance that made the alpha grimace.

“I don’t normally agree with using lube like this,” he explained, “I feel like spit is sufficient, but a few people reminded me that you’re a virgin—technically, anyway—and you’d need the extra...stuff.”

“Yeah,” Tavish agreed, not quite sure what else he could say. He almost wanted to point out that he _wasn’t_ a virgin at all, but Tavish wasn’t keen to re-open old wounds, and instead merely kept quiet as he waited for Fenrir to proceed.

Fenrir seemed to understand the silence as Tavish’s consent, and moved his hand down to his entrance, circling it a few times with his slick finger before he pressed the digit against it.

At first, Tavish felt like Fenrir was pressing his finger against an expanse of skin, and not against any sort of orifice. After a moment however, he felt the finger slowly begin to breach his hole, and his eyes widened.

“Just breathe, pet,” Fenrir murmured, moving up to kiss him while he kept his fingertip inside him. “The pain will pass, just relax.”

Tavish nodded, whimpering a little as he tried to relax his muscles and accept Fenrir’s digit into him more easily, but his mind could only recall that first traumatic time. Fenrir kissed him again, murmuring reminders of where he was and who he was with.

 

_Fenrir. This is Fenrir._

 

Tavish blinked, tears streaming from his eyes as he finally relaxed, and the finger slid slowly, gently, deeper into him while he brushed tears from Tavish’s eyes.

“That’s it, Tavish,” Fenrir encouraged, his voice soft but rough, and Tavish opened his eyes as he breathed out, shivering a little at the sensation of the finger inside him.

When Tavish nodded, indicating that he had finally relaxed again, Fenrir began to slowly slide the finger in and out of him, helping him to acclimate to the sensation, before he added a second finger, and began to gently stretch him out and prepare him for what was to come.

Tavish smiled a little, his expression dopey and a little dazed as he fidgeted with anticipation while Fenrir tended to him gently. For all his infamy and show of ferocity, Fenrir was a tender mate, and made it clear that he had no intentions to hurt Tavish in any way.

Of course, Tavish had known this for ages, but imagining one of Fenrir’s enemies seeing him acting so tenderly almost made Tavish want to laugh.

Fenrir added a third finger, stretching him even more, before he leant in for another intoxicating kiss as he murmured, “think you’re ready, pet? I’m still bigger than a few fingers.”

“I think so,” Tavish replied honestly, the right side of his lip caught between his teeth as he gazed up at Fenrir. “You’ll still go slow, right?”

“I promise,” Fenrir replied, his smile softer as he spoke, and a look of unabashed love in his eyes—one Tavish had never seen before, and certainly not in public, where Fenrir had to be Alpha. Here, he was just Fenrir, the dominant mate of Tavish, and they did love each other—Tavish could feel it.

Tavish nodded again, his words caught somewhere in his throat, and he watched as Fenrir retracted his fingers from the sub’s arse, cleaned them off magically with a flick of his hand, then moved to slick up his enormous, thick cock, which made Tavish both quiver in anticipation and nervousness at the same time.

Fenrir shifted as his hands, now clean, and they fell to Tavish’s hips. Tavish gasped softly, and watched as Fenrir gently manoeuvred him, locking Tavish’s legs around Fenrir’s strong waist, then retracted one of his hands in order to line himself up with Tavish’s entrance.

Fenrir paused again, his eyes, now almost completely amber in his feral and aroused state, locked with Tavish’s, once again as he sought permission to continue.

The concept of locking gazes with another wolf had always been one of dominance, and of challenge. To see Fenrir hold his gaze in a clear request, rather than something else, was almost unnerving. It showed that Fenrir had not been born a wolf like Tavish was, despite the alpha’s almost never-ending bravado and seemingly limitless strength, both physically as well as mentally.

At his heart, he was still so endearingly  _human_ .

Tavish nodded, allowing Fenrir to go ahead, and he relaxed a little when they broke eye contact. He did not like the underlying sense of challenge such a thing evoked, when all he wanted to do was feel protected and safe by his mate, not like he needed to somehow beat him in one way or another.

Fenrir pressed the tip of his cock to Tavish’s hole, and the sub gasped softly. The alpha was certainly  _much_ bigger than a few fingers ever could be, and it felt more like he was shoving a broom handle into Tavish than anything else.

Tavish whimpered, and Fenrir’s actions slowed. Tavish could feel the dominant’s muscles shaking as though he was just barely holding back. However, the fact was that he  _did_ hold back, and this small action made Tavish both trust and love his mate all the more.

After a moment, Tavish nodded again, inviting Fenrir to continue. He edged forward slowly, and when Tavish would gasp in pain, or hiss a plea for him to stop, he would—every single time.

It took far longer than Tavish had anticipated for Fenrir to fully sheath himself inside of Tavish, and as Fenrir’s groin nestled against Tavish’s arse, he glanced down, panting a little, to gaze in wonder at the blending of their flesh, so starkly different in tone, and beautiful to see. Tavish could not recall a time where he felt so complete.

“How do you feel, pet?” Fenrir asked, and Tavish looked back up to his mate, who was panting hard, once again giving Tavish the impression that it was well beyond difficult for Fenrir to hold back like he was doing, and yet he had not complained once about the snail’s pace in which they were going.

“Good,” Tavish replied, his tone similar to Fenrir’s as he pulled his dominant in for a kiss. “It feels a little odd...but, good.”

“It’s about to get a lot better, pet,” Fenrir murmured between kisses, and before Tavish could reply, Fenrir began to move.

Tavish shivered a little, feeling a dull ache in his arse as Fenrir slid out slowly, then back in, using more werewolf magic to add extra lubricant and soften the sting.

Miraculously, Tavish suffered no flashbacks, and watched with wide-eyed wonder at the way Fenrir moved, sliding in and out almost painfully slowly, picking up speed so incrementally that it was barely noticeable, until Fenrir adjusted his position, and Tavish saw stars.

“ _Oh!_ ” Tavish cried out, his eyes bulging and body convulsing slightly, which made Fenrir laugh as he thrust in again, harder this time, making Tavish moan.

“Good, pet,” Fenrir murmured, his hands tightening on Tavish’s hips. “That’s it, just relax, and let your alpha take care of you...”

Tavish tried to move with Fenrir, but his attempts were slow and a little clumsy. Fenrir chuckled a little, but did not openly reprimand him, slowing down a little to help Tavish follow his movements, but almost immediately Tavish whimpered at the loss of the feeling, which spurred Fenrir to speed up again.

Though Tavish did not know how long it lasted, to him it felt like forever—a blissful eternity that Tavish never wanted to end. Fenrir moved one of his hands to Tavish’s cock, stroking him to distract the sub from the niggling presence of residual pain, until at last, Tavish let out another shudder as he came, painting his abdomen and Fenrir’s chest with his seed.

Fenrir picked up his pace, grunting as he thrust into Tavish a few more times, and then he, too, found his own release. He froze, as though hit with some sort of wizard hex, then let out a blissful sigh as he pulled out of Tavish, then lay down to draw him close, peppering his face with gentle kisses.

“You’re a much sweeter lover than I expected,” Tavish said between soft pants, and Fenrir smirked at him slyly while he reached out to brush his fingers over the purple mark on the side of Tavish’s throat, marking him as Fenrir’s.

“Would you rather I had been rough?” Fenrir asked, arching a brow, and Tavish smiled weakly at him.

“No, this was good,” Tavish replied, shifting forward to press another kiss to Fenrir’s soft lips. “I just liked it...liked all of it. I’m glad I can enjoy sex with you. I was afraid I might be too broken, you know, after everything.”

“People are more beautiful for their faults, Tavish,” Fenrir murmured in response. “What I mean is it shows your strength—you had something awful happen to you, and you pulled yourself back together, and were stronger for it. Do I wish it never happened to you? Yes, all the time—I can think of no one less deserving of such a vile act than you—but you did not allow it to destroy you. It makes me proud to call you my mate.”

“I love you,” Tavish replied, his voice reedy and eyes watery, and Fenrir chuckled as he pulled his mate in for one last sweet, tender kiss before they fell asleep.

“I love you too, baby.”

 


	13. Epilogue – Happily Ever After

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: At last we have come to the end of Lunaticus :') I'm a little sad that it's over, but it's been an amazing ride, and I am so glad that some of you stuck around for the companion pieces <3 This came out much shorter than I'd intended, but I hope you guys enjoy it all the same. :) Thank you so much for your support over the last two years <3

Epilogue – Happily Ever After

 

“What are you thinking about?”

The words, paired with the gentle brush of Fenrir’s pointed nose against the newest mark on Tavish’s throat brought him back to reality, and he smiled softly.

“How we got together,” Tavish replied, rolling over to smile up at Fenrir, who was regarding him with a softness that he never showed in public—a tenderness that no one would ever see but him and Adina.

“Why are you so obsessed with the past?” Fenrir asked, his hand moving to touch Tavish's hair in a gentle caress, “the past was terrible.”

“Not all of it,” Tavish replied with the same warm smile, pausing to arch up and kiss Fenrir gently. “Coming here, meeting you, becoming your mate...was that terrible?”

“You know damn well that that’s not what I meant,” Fenrir growled. “I meant all the other stuff.”

“The good outweighs the bad,” Tavish said, shrugging a little before he arched up to kiss Fenrir again. “If I think for too long about what happened to me, or losing you to Voldemort, and then to Azkaban, I feel like I might just _die_ , and I still have no idea how I got through it all...but then I remember that what you had to go through was probably way worse, and I feel guilty for getting so upset about it, and...”

Tavish trailed off, and smiled.

“You see?” he continued, still smiling up at his bemused dominant. “The good makes the bad almost worth it. There was suffering, there was hardship, but there was goodness too. There was _you_.”

“You make me sound like some sort of...of...thing,” Fenrir replied, and Tavish snorted softly, making his dominant glare at him.

“A _thing_?” Tavish asked, still giggling, and Fenrir growled a little.

“I don’t know the word,” he complained. “Like some sort of golden guardian or something.”

“You mean like an angel?” Tavish asked, and snickered when Fenrir’s face turned a blotchy red. Something told Tavish that the man had known the proper word all along, but just hadn’t wanted to say it.

“Yeah, that thing,” Fenrir replied, tugging Tavish a little closer, and kissed him softly. “I’m not, though.”

“I know,” Tavish replied as he kissed him back. “But you come in a close second.”

Despite Tavish's longing to lie and bask in the memory of his time with Fenrir, his stomach was beginning to demand that he get up. Fenrir and Tavish slowly and reluctantly retrieved their discarded clothing, dressing in silence before then began to head towards the door.

The moment they stepped outside, Tavish snickered when he spotted who was waiting for them.

Harry and Remus were just outside of Fenrir’s scent markers, so entangled in one another that it was difficult to tell where Harry ended and Remus began.

Tavish coughed pointedly, but that did not seem to be enough to separate the mated pair, and it was only when Fenrir let out a low growl of annoyance did they part, both flushing and grinning sheepishly.

“What are you two doing loitering outside my cabin?” Fenrir demanded, his voice annoyed and fatigued in equal measure. It bothered Tavish to hear, given that Harry was his friend, but he could also understand the attitude—Harry seemed to attract trouble like nothing Tavish had ever seen, and Fenrir, like the rest of them, were so _tired_ of trouble.

“Mostly waiting for you two, but then we got bored,” Harry replied, grinning a little, and tugged down his collar to show off a few new love bites that Remus had no doubt left on him. Tavish smirked, and tugged down his own collar, showing that he was still in the lead of their little game.

Fenrir snorted, lifting his hand to offer Tavish’s neck a small squeeze before he tramped towards the main area of the territory, and Remus fell in step with him, speaking softly enough that Tavish and Harry would not be able to overhear.

Harry sidled up to Tavish, his expression softening a little, though his eyes were still on his mate as he disappeared in between the houses.

“Remus needed to talk to Alpha,” Harry explained in a hushed tone. “Some of the pups in his lessons are starting to gang up on the turned pups, like blood status, except the turned pups versus the born pups. He wants to nip it in the bud before any real bullying starts up.”

“It happens from time to time,” Tavish replied, nodding his head a little. “Also, some turned wolves claim that they don’t trust born wolves, and vice versa, for all sorts of stupid reasons. Fenrir will stop it, don’t worry.”

“You trust him a lot,” Harry observed, and Tavish laughed.

“I’ve been with him for more than two decades,” Tavish said with a small laugh, “of _course_ I trust him.”

“That still sounds completely _barmy_ to me,” Harry said, though by his tone, Tavish suspected he hadn’t meant the remark in a negative way. “You still look the same age as me, but you’re way older, and then being with one person for so long? I’ve only been with Remus for...”

Harry paused, and counted on his fingers.

“...for just barely four years, and already it feels like ages. I mean, I can’t imagine being with anyone else, but _still_.”

“You’re adorable, Harry,” Tavish said as he laughed, making his friend flush a little. “Trust me, the time _flies_ by. Soon, you’ll be saying the same thing when you’ve hit your twentieth anniversary, and you’ll remark on how it feels like no time at all.”

“Probably,” he admitted, his little shy smile bordering on goofy as he gazed ahead towards the territory as it bloomed into sight before them.

Tavish could see that Fenrir had already gathered most of the pups with dominant blood and seemed to be scolding them. Ulrich seemed to be missing—again—presumably off with his human courting mate, and Adina was corralling the younger children and trying to get them to eat their lunch. Sadie and Jade were doing the same with the more adolescent pups, and Leticia was hanging back, smiling adoringly at Jade, though the fellow sub did not seem to notice.

“I forgot to tell you something,” Harry said suddenly, and grabbed Tavish’s hand, tugging him back towards the cover of the trees with something of a conspiratorial look on his face as he did so.

“What?” Tavish asked, his panic setting in before he could help it. _Please, don’t let it be something bad._ “What is it?”

“Last night...” Harry began, his voice almost breathless with excitement. “Remus let me top him.”

“ _What?_ ” Tavish breathed, his mouth dropping open. “I’m sorry, I mean... _what?_ ”

“I asked him about it ages ago,” Harry explained, his words coming out in a breathless rush. “Just before or after Ron and Hermione’s wedding...somewhere around there, at least. I asked him if he’d ever be into it, and he said yes, then last night...well... _he_ brought it up. It was so cute.”

“Cute?” Tavish asked, laughing a little. “Not sexy?”

“Well, _yeah_ , it was, but the way he asked made it seem like he’d wanted to ask for a while, but just couldn’t bring himself to, almost like he was embarrassed to ask.”

“And...?” Tavish asked, raising his eyebrows, but Harry just stared back at him blankly. Really, the so-called _Chosen One_ could be so dense sometimes. “How was it?”

“Brilliant,” Harry replied with something of a shy grin. “I mean, it’s so different, the way it feels...I mean, compared to bottoming, it’s just...” Harry shook his head a little, as though he was having trouble finding the right words. “I think I like bottoming better, but Remus made it just... _brilliant_.”

“I don’t think Fenrir would ever go for that,” Tavish said thoughtfully, and laughed at the sympathetic expression that crossed Harry’s face. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. I don’t mind. The idea of topping...” Tavish trailed off and made a face, which caused Harry to snort. “The idea doesn’t sound... _right_ to me.”

“How come?” Harry asked, and cocked his head to the side like a curious pup. The look made Tavish want to smile.

“I always thought it was a sub thing,” Tavish replied, still smiling as he linked an arm around the back of Harry’s neck, and began to lead him towards the kitchens tent. “Not really the need to be _submissive_ , mind, but the need to be...well, filled up like that. In general, it goes against our nature to top, regardless what equipment we have. I mean, we can’t speak for all subs, but—”

“—no, I get what you mean,” Harry added with a small smile. “I liked it, I did, and I _did_ ask Remus before about it, and to be honest I think he only asked for me, not him, and it felt good and everything, but it felt almost wrong. Not bad, just...off. You know?”

“I do,” Tavish replied, offering his friend a squeeze, and then smiled at him. “Come on, if we don’t hurry, all the food will be gone.”

The pair hurried forward, filling up their wooden bowls with spit-roasted pheasant and crispy potatoes, then parted ways, Harry to Remus, and Tavish to Fenrir.

Tavish settled in next to his mate, smiling as the alpha snagged a hunk of meat off his plate, then pressed something into his hand.

“Here,” he grunted, “for you.”

Tavish glanced down, and smiled when he saw the shape of a small, roughly hewn wooden wolf, its head tilted back and howling at the moon.

Tavish smiled again, his throat tightening a little at the sight of the thoughtful gift, and closed his fingers around it gently.

“Thank you, Fenrir.”

The End

 


End file.
